Research

Reflecting broad changes in their social and economic status, women around the world have been migrating more in recent decades and have thus constituted an increasing share of migrant populations almost everywhere. But the U.S. has defied this global trend, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of data from the U.S, Census Bureau and the United Nations. Women have made up ever larger shares of legal immigrants to the United States in recent years, as they have elsewhere.

Online banking is holding steady as a mainstream Internet activity, growing along with Internet use generally, though not accelerating as have some other forms of online activities. Fully 43% of Internet users, or about 63 million American adults, bank online.

Hispanic consumers are heavy users of radio, spending significant time, in particular with Spanish-language radio, according to a new study from Arbitron, Inc.

Hispanics in the U.S. watch Spanish-language TV, right?

Wrong!

In a new survey, twice as many Hispanics said they prefer to watch in English and Spanish equally than those who said they prefer to watch in either language alone, regardless of whether they were raised in the U.S. or abroad.

Over 26 million Hispanic adults are watching TV in an average week in the U.S. Virtually all Hispanics watch prime time TV (91% of Hispanic males and 93% of Hispanic females). Hispanic females are more likely than Hispanic males to watch morning and daytime hours. Daytime soaps account for twice as much of Hispanic females time spent viewing when compared to non-Hispanic females’ viewing (11% vs. 5%).

Arbitron has been hit by a double-whammy in its push to introduce a new radio audience measurement service based on its storied portable people meter system. The media industry’s self-regulatory research authority, the Media Rating Council, refused to accredit the system, and a radio industry task force evaluating proposals for new audience ratings services rejected Arbitron’s preliminary proposal as being too superficial on some crucial areas.

The Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) released the results of its 2006 Latino Professional Pulse Survey. The results of the survey “Making a Difference: Attitudes and Characteristics of Today’s Latino Professionals,” depict a population that is highly educated, fully bilingual, in almost all cases legally authorized to work, and with a family structure similar to the non-Hispanic white U.S. population.

Hispanic teens may be the single most important segment for future-oriented marketers to understand. They provide rich insights into the influence of ethnicity and culture in the larger U.S. consumer market. And with a current spending power of $20 billion and a projected growth rate six times higher than the rest of the teen market, Hispanic teens are a force in and of themselves.

In an analysis of US mass transit users, US consumers who use subways and railway systems, and “power pedestrians” — defined as consumers who walk three or more miles in a city or town over the course of a week — Scarborough Research found that this desirable demographic is plugged-in and more likely to plan to purchase portable electronic devices such as MP3 players and PDAs, as well as to use wireless Internet.

Adoption of high-speed internet at home grew twice as fast in the year prior to March 2006 than in the same time frame from 2004 to 2005. Middle-income Americans accounted for much of the increase, along with African Americans and new internet users coming online with broadband at home.

Hispanics by a large margin believe that immigrants have to speak English to be a part of American society and even more so that English should be taught to the children of immigrants, according to recent surveys conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Scarborough Research released an analysis of quick service and sit-down restaurant patronage in the U.S. According to Scarborough, the average adult visits a quick service restaurant such as McDonald’s or Subway 5.2 times in a given month.

Birmingham, AL, residents, however, visit a quick service restaurant 6.5 times in the average month. Louisville, KY (6.4 average visits fast food restaurant visits per month), Austin, TX (6.3 average visits), Memphis, TN (6.3 average visits) and Raleigh, NC (6.2 average visits) round out the top five local markets for frequent fast food restaurant patronage.

The D’Alessio IROLAmericas study contains the results of research conducted by Internet with 529 Latin-Americans who live in the USA, and whose countries of origin are Mexico, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay and Argentina, who registered themselves with the help of Media Consulting, representation company which manages the US Hispanic inventory of these news sites, between January and March 2006 in the following news organizations.