Market Snapshot: Los Angeles

It’s one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world and the second largest in the U.S., and Hispanics have a commanding presence in the Los Angeles DMA.

According to data from Geoscape International, American Marketscape DataStream: 2011 Series, Latinos number 8,089,549 of the area’s residents. The DMA’s total population is 17,755,629.

Along with Los Angeles and Orange Counties, the Los Angeles DMA includes Riverside and San Bernardino Counties – that is, the Inland Empire region, and Ventura County, to the northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

Comprising an area of 27,500 square miles, the Los Angeles DMA stretches from Ventura County all the way down the Pacific Coast through Orange County and as far east as the Arizona and Nevada borders. It’s the largest DMA in the U.S.

Los Angeles is home to people from more than 140 countries speaking 224 distinct languages. Hispanics of any race make up 45.3 percent of the market’s total population, Geoscape data reveal.

Latinos are driving the population growth, too. From 1990 through 2011, the Hispanic population in the Los Angeles DMA increased 75 percent. By contrast, the area’s total population grew by 23 percent. During the same period, the white non-Hispanic population declined 12 percent and the African-American, non-Latino, numbers were down 9 percent. The Asian non-Hispanic population increased 57 percent.

Within the Los Angeles city limits, the growth is coming from more than Mexican immigrants, who now make up 82 percent of the DMA’s population. Large communities of Salvadorans and Guatemalans have sprouted up, representing 6 percent and 5 percent of the total population respectively. Small pockets of Cubans, Hondurans and Puerto Ricans also call the area home.

Acculturation levels among Hispanics are mixed in Los Angeles, but English dependence and preferred used of English have the advantage over Spanish-language dependence or preference.

The majority of Hispanics describe themselves as follows:

• • “Bi-Cultural” (27 percent): Bilingual, immigrant who arrived as a child or young adult, with many Latino cultural practices

• • “Nueva Latina” (26 percent):  English-preferred, second generation U.S. born, with some Hispanic cultural practices

• • “Hispano” (18 percent): Spanish-preferred, speaking some English, immigrant who arrived as an adult more than a decade ago, with predominantly Latino cultural practices

• • “Americanizado” (15 percent): English-dominant, third generation U.S. born, with few Hispanic cultural practices

• • “Latinoamerican” (14 percent): Spanish-dominant speaking nearly no English, immigrant who arrived as an adult less than 10 years ago, with primarily Hispanic cultural practices

Geoscape®, the American Marketscape DataStream: Series 2011 and Consumer Spending Dynamix: Series 2011. © 2011 Geoscape International, Inc. www.geoscape.com

Article courtesy of Hispanic Market Weekly