Want to Reach US Hispanics? Try Texting Them

(Photo by Flickr user Jhaymesisviphotography via Creative Commons license)

The youngest major racial or ethnic group in the United States is the nation’s Latino population. Fifty-eight percent — nearly 6-in-10 — of U.S. Hispanics are millennials (approximately ages 18-33) or younger, according to the Pew Research Center.

By comparison, half of the black population, and 46 percent of the Asian population, are in that young age group. Non-Hispanic whites are the nation’s oldest racial group, with only about 4-in-10 whites being millennials or younger.

Two-thirds of Hispanic millennials were born in the United States and about 75 percent of all Latino millennials have a good command of the English language.

Latinos have been the nation’s youngest group since the 1980s, although their median age has edged up over the years — from 22 in the 1980s to 28 in 2014. The median ages for other racial and ethnic groups are 33 for blacks, 36 for Asians and 43 for whites.

These young Latinos have the potential to wield significant political clout. At 43 percent, they are the single largest bloc of voters among U.S. Hispanics. In 2016, 11.9 million Hispanic millennials are expected to be eligible to vote. While their numbers have grown significantly, however, they are still far fewer than the 42 million white millennials who will be eligible to vote in this year’s presidential election.

These numbers are the result of a huge immigration wave from Latin America and Asia that peaked in the 2000s, after 59 million immigrants came to the United States over 50 years. About half of today’s U.S.-born Hispanics, and 80 percent of U.S.-born Asians, are the children of immigrants, many of whom came to America during this most recent wave.

Marketers are spending lots of money to reach the coveted Hispanic consumer group. Advertising dollars targeting Latino consumers grew 12 percent in 2014, far ahead of the 5 percent increase for overall U.S. major-media ad spending, according to Advertising Age.

But if sellers want to reach young Hispanics below the age of 33, they might want to zero in on mobile platforms. After all, 90 percent of all millennials report that their smartphones never leave their sides.

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