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Hispanic Wealth and Who Wants It

By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator

Dallas, TX – A little midweek quiz: what minority group's wealth is growing faster than that of the American population? Asian Americans, African Americans or Hispanics? You got it - Hispanics. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Midday.

"The number of Hispanic households earning more than $100,000 a year grew 126 percent between 1991-2000, compared to 77% for the general American population." I'm quoting a survey released earlier this year by Merrill Lynch.

A stat like that makes media conglomerates start licking their chops. And the future looks even greener, according to a survey by Hispanic media giant Univision conducted by researcher Global Insight. Disposable income of Hispanics will surge far beyond the spending growth of the general populace. While overall spending will grow 165 percent over the next 20 years, the survey indicates Hispanic wealth will grow 250 percent.

And don't think the world's largest media company is sitting back without trying to take a big chunk of that pie. Earlier this month, AOL Time Warner, before they changed their name to just Time Warner, launched one its biggest initiatives to date - Spanish-language AOL Latino. Where other websites have tried and failed to make a profit, AOL has good reason to believe this off-shoot will be a success. The Internet service has a 45 percent share of the Hispanic community, making it that group's number one provider.

So what accounts for this disproportionate growth for U.S. Hispanics? The Merrill Lynch survey points to the fiscally conservative nature of this community. Even while the stock market was heading south, Hispanic wealth grew. As small business owners, Latinos chose "to reinvest in the family business rather than stocks and bonds." And "education and saving for future education needs" is another top priority. With values like that, I think all projections are correct. For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.

 

Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m.

Email Maxine Shapiro about this story.