Athens, August 11, 2021 – The UGA's Selig Center for Economic Growth released its 2021 Multicultural Economy report, detailing the explosive growth of Asian American, Hispanic, and African American consumer buying powers in the last decade. This report also details the need for companies to pay attention to marketing consumer goods and services to these rising demographics.
The Selig Center compile data gathered from U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and other economic datas. The combined share of the three groups' buying power increased to 17.2% in 2020 from 10.6% in 1990. The combined buying power exploded from $458 billion in 1990 to over $3 Trillion in 2020.
“A major factor underpinning the growth of the nation’s minority markets is that African Americans, Asians and Hispanics continue to become more highly educated, which allows proportionally more Blacks, Asians and Hispanics to enter occupations with higher average salaries,” said Jeff Humphreys, director of the Selig Center and author of the Multicultural Economy report.
Several factors driving the major shift in consumer buying powers are the changing demographics, rising entrepreneurial startups, higher educated workforce, and population growth.
Total buying power of the U.S. consumers expanded by 55% from $11.3 Trillion to over $17.5 Trillion between 2010 and 2020. During this period, Asian American buying power rise by 111%, the buying power of Hispanic grew by 87%, and Native American grew by 67%, and African American purchasing power grew by 61%.
The size of Asian American Pacific Islanders buying power surpassed the annual economic GDP of all but 13 countries in the world – equivalent to $1.3 Trillion. It is slightly larger than the gross domestic product of Spain and slightly smaller than the GDP of Australia.
In 2020, the 10 states with the largest Asian consumer markets are:
1. California :$439 billion
2. New York $109 billion
3. Texas $100 billion
4. New Jersey $70 billion
5. Washington $58 billion
6. Illinois $49 billion
7. Virginia $39 billion
8. Florida $37 billion
9. Massachusetts $36 billion
10. Hawaii $36 billion.
The states with the fastest growth in the Asian market between 2010-2020 are:
1. Washington 174%
2. South Dakota 164%
3. Utah 157%
4. Vermont 154%
5. Indiana 146%
6. Montana 145%
7. Texas 153%
8. Oregon 142%
9. North Carolina 142%
10. Georgia 138%.
The new 161-page Multicultural Economy report is currently available for sale online at www.terry.uga.edu/selig
