Diversity, Age and Gender Statistics

By Linda P. Morton

Diversity, age and gender statistics enable business owners to target their markets using a simple matrix market segmentation process.

This process uses demographics like diversity, age and gender to determine personality (psychographic) and social (sociographic) characteristics.

Diversity considers race, national origin and cultural differences. Business owners must consider diversity statistics because non-Caucasian markets are growing rapidly and together they will soon outnumber Caucasians.

Non-Caucasians represented a $200 billion annual market in 1992. By 2003 their market size grew to more than $1.5 trillion. With a sixth of the national market at stake, mistakes in the non-Caucasian markets can be quite costly. Companies wanting their share of this market must segment non-Caucasian publics and be aware of the ways that they are changing USA markets.

Age statistics influence marketing decisions because age enables business owners to determine a market's generation and life stage. Both provide a wealth of psychographic and sociographic characteristics.

For example, the Baby Boomer and Generation Y generations are much larger than Generation X. There are more than 70 million people in each of the first two generations, but less than 45 million in Generation X. Besides size, these generations differ in the appeals that are effective with them, the media that best reaches them, and how they spend their money.

Gender statistics also affect small businesses. Women make up a larger population in the United States than men. There are 118 million women compared to 111 million men. Women make up almost half (48%) of the workforce, and 7.7 million women own their own businesses. Their earnings, expertise, experience, and authority are growing.

Men and women not only differ from one another, but they also differ within from one another. Several categories of women and men are provided at http://www.TargetPublics.com/GenderSocialization.html

For more diversity, age and gender statistics and information about using statistics to improve marketing, get your free report on the Matrix Marketing Segmentation process at www.TargetPublics.com.