The Rapidly Changing Face of America's Children

In my last blog I spoke about the challenge to toy nation represented by a declining U.S. birth rate and an uneven population growth. In fact, in some cities deaths now exceed births.   In this blog, I want to show how it’s going to get even more complicated for toy marketers.

“Driven mainly by an extraordinary influx of Hispanics, the nation’s population of minority students has surged to 42 percent of public school enrollment, up from 22 percent three decades ago, according to an annual report issued yesterday by the government.” That is what the New York Times had to say in an article entitled “U.S. Data Show Rapid Minority Growth in School Rolls.”

Just like the births to deaths ratio, this surge in growth differs by what part of the country you consider. The article states that “The Midwest remained the whitest region in 2005: 74 percent of students there were white, and 26 percent members of minorities. In the South, 24 percent of students were black, more than anywhere else. In the West, 46 percent of students were white, 37 percent were Hispanic, 7 percent were Asian, 5 percent were black, and the rest were Pacific Islanders, American Indians or students of more than one race.” 

Well, so much for having one grand marketing plan for the whole nation. What can be done? I think a lot. That’s in my next blog.