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The changing face of the U.S. consumer

Advertising Age (Registration Required), 7/7/08

Abstract:

The marketing community, already dealing with a slumping economy and an increasingly consumer-controlled media marketplace, must confront another new reality: The face of the American consumer is changing dramatically.

It's not news that the nation is aging, but the fact that the average U.S. head of household is just six months shy of 50 is a startling statistic.

Also factor in that regional demographics are diverging more than ever before. The young, multicultural West bears little resemblance to the old, largely white Northeast, where many communities are nearly childless. And that's to say nothing of the rapid and economically vital influx of immigrants...

...Growing old: Impact of aging households

The average U.S. head of household is now nearly 50 years old (49.5, to be precise). But here's the bigger story: More than 80% of the growth in the number of households in the next five years will be among those headed by people 55 and older. That's pretty scary stuff for the youth-obsessed.

The balance of household growth is projected to be among newly forming households headed by people 25 to 34. We can expect little or no household growth, and perhaps even a slight decline, in the highest-income and highest-spending household demographic: households headed by someone 35 to 54.

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