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| An Overlooked Demographic |
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Anyone following news of the recent $365 million lottery winners got a clear picture of just how much America's demographics are shifting. Although the winners came from the heart of the country, Lincoln, Nebraska, the winners hailed from a variety of countries and ethnicities.
Demographic change continues to sweep the country, filtering into even the most traditional heartland areas.
It should be easy then for most of us to identify the important emerging population groups. Hispanics, Asians and the growing number of shoppers adding natural and organic foods to their diet are clearly leading the list of those growing in number. And many of us could identify the new product and store trends geared towards making shopping a more pleasant experience for these groups.
But throughout the country there is another group whose growing numbers bring a host of new realities to retailers and suppliers looking to meet their needs. And that also means new opportunities to build loyal customer relations.
Today, there are about 100 million Americans aged 15 or older who are single or unmarried. To make that enormous number even more important, these Americans head up nearly 53 million households or nearly half of all American homes. In comparison, Hispanics -- whose growing numbers are widely documented -- make up a population one-third as large.
Singles, or unmarrieds, can have an enormous impact on nearly every aspect of your company. The most obvious is the size of products that might have work wonderfully for the traditional family of four, which today is far less prevalent throughout the nation. Just as we no longer live in an Ozzie and Harriet society, neither should the products we sell serve only people in that demographic.
Some of the statistics about this growing group of shoppers might startle you both in terms of their numbers and their reach across the country. And as with any demographic group, understanding the many types of shoppers that fall into this segment is essential to any hope of success.
Consider the following:
- Half the adult population in the state of New York is unmarried, the highest rate of any state. (Just so you know this isn't a purely American issue, the statistics are similar in the United Kingdom. In London alone, nearly 60% of the residents are single or unmarried, and similar statistics appear for many other major cities across the globe.)
- 27% of adults in Gary, IN, Birmingham, AL, and the Florida cities of Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Hollywood are formerly married (widowed, separated or divorced), the highest rates of formerly married people in any cities of 100,000 residents or more. Clearly, this population shift is far from limited to major metropolitan areas like New York or Los Angeles. And this group includes people from all age groups, not just young adults.
- More than half of all unmarrieds are women. Nearly two-thirds of unmarrieds have never been married. Nearly one-quarter of unmarrieds are divorced and 14% are widowed.
- Nearly 30 million Americans live alone. These single person households account for slightly more than one-quarter of all households.
- Some 12 million Americans are single parents, more than 80 percent of them are women.
The numbers are large, which means the challenges and opportunities will be equally significant. Unlike an ethnic group, these shoppers won't come with special accents, languages, or customs. But the opportunities are just as real for those who grab them.
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