SAN DIEGO, April 15, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Not to be outdone by her colleague, the Claritas Data Cupid, who for Valentine's Day this year took aim at what's in a name, the Claritas Data Easter Bunny (DEB, for short), hopped into action this year by putting together an Easter Basket of data, of sorts.
Like her winged cohort, DEB, also played a name game (see Data Cupid press release - http://claritas.irconnect.com/?d=39070), but, in addition, sniffed around numbers on consumer expenditures for three Easter staples -- eggs, candy and ham.
At the behest of her employer, the nation's leading market research firm and demographic data provider, DEB identified the top 20 U.S. counties of 100,000-plus population (based on 2000 Census figures) with the highest index relative to national percentages of those with the last name Easter or with the first name Bunny.
Interestingly, DEB found what her Valentine's Day counterpart also found -- that counties in southern states dominated in the rankings for both names. For Easter it was overwhelming with 18 of the top 20 counties being in southern states, including the top two and bottom two, and for Bunny, five of the top 10 counties and 11 of the top 20 were in southern states.
As with the Valentine's Day study, the Tar Heel state of North Carolina, which had seven counties in the top 20 for the name Love, led the way this time with 5 total counties for both names. But, in this study it shared the outright lead with Virginia.
For the name Easter four North Carolina counties were in the Top 20, Davidson and Forsyth Counties ranked one and two, and the 19th and 20th counties were Alamance and Guilford. Bunny had one county, also Forsyth, which placed number 12. Also, all five Virginia counties were listed under the name Easter, of which just one was in the top 10 -- Richmond (City) at number seven.
For Bunny, Texas edged California four counties to three, but dominated the top five, with the number one, three and four counties of Randall, Potter and Tom Green. The fourth Texas county was at the other end of the list, number 18 Midland County. California had the number two county, Shasta, and another in the top 10, Yolo County at number eight. The third California county was number 13, Napa County.
By sheer numbers, the top three counties with the highest number of Bunny's were also in California, and, expectedly, in heavily populated areas -- those being Los Angeles County, San Diego County and Orange County.
In looking at average household-level expenditures for eggs, candy/gum and ham per year, DEB decided to rank the top 20 U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas of 100,000-plus population on a per capita basis. She found that the swing in amounts spent across the board for all three items was minimal, but from a geographical standpoint some interesting patterns emerged.
For example, California was the runaway leader for egg consumption with 14 of the 20 MSAs in the Golden State, including eight of the top 10. The Salinas, Visalia-Tulare-Porterville, Merced, Riverside-San Bernardino, Ventura, Fresno MSAs ranked numbers two through seven and Bakersfield and Stockton-Lodi were numbers nine and 10. Other notables were Orange County at number 11 and Los Angeles-Long Beach at number 16. Altogether, 19 were in the West, and the only remaining MSA was in the north, the Washington, DC area, at number 14. The number one MSA was Provo-Orem, UT with an average annual outlay of $62.69, but that differed by only $6.04 with the number 20 MSA, Yuma, AZ at $56.65.
For candy consumers, the western MSAs also claimed the majority, with 11 of the top 20, of which the Colorado MSAs of Boulder-Longmont, Fort Collins-Loveland and Denver ranked in the top 10 at numbers two, seven and nine. Northern MSAs were a close second with eight, including the number one MSA, Barnstable-Yarmouth, MA.
And, for ham consumption, the northern MSAs dominated, with New Jersey leading the way. Half of the New Jersey MSAs were in the top 10 and three in the top five. Those three were Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon at number two, Trenton, number four, Bergen-Passaic, number five and Newark, number six. Altogether, 16 of the 20 MSAs were in northern states, three in the southwest (all in Texas) and one in the west, again Provo-Orem, UT, at number 13.
Here is a breakdown of the Easter/Bunny top 20 county lists ranked by index, which is a measure of how common the names are relative to the nation as a whole. A score of 100 means the name is equally as common as it is in the total U.S. So, Davidson County, with an index of 1351, has nearly fourteen times more Easter(s) per capita than the country.
Easter
Index Index
1.Davidson, NC 1351 11. Newport News (City), VA 452
2. Forsyth, NC 747 12. McLennan,TX 438
3. Benton, AR 675 13. Chesterfield, VA 428
4. Kanawha, WV 667 14. Hampton (City),VA 412
5. Washington , AR 653 15. Wichita, TX 410
6. Kankakee, IL 652 16. Jefferson, MO 406
7. Richmond (City), VA 635 17. Grayson, TX 394
8. Blount, TN 508 18. Henrico, VA 390
9. Caddo, LA 497 19. Almanace, NC 387
10. Clark, OH 460 20. Guilford, NC 381
Bunny
Index Index
1. Randall, TX 1185 11. Hinds, MS 495
2. Shasta, CA 789 12. Forsyth, NC 490
3. Potter, TX 704 13. Napa, CA 486
4. Tom Green, TX 574 14. Linn, OR 473
5. Lycoming, PA 572 15. Johnson, IA 452
6. Shelby, AL 546 16. St. Tammany, LA 403
7. Berrien, MI 533 17. Richmond, GA 402
8. Yolo, CA 523 18. Midland, TX 392
9. Rankin, MS 503 19. Warren, OH 390
10.Coconino, AZ 497 20. St. Johns, FL 388
Here are the consumption rankings on eggs, candy/gum and ham:
Eggs Consumption per Capita
Top 20 MSAs
Rank MSA Name EGGS ($/HH)
1 Provo-Orem, UT 62.69
2 Salinas, CA 60.67
3 Visalia-Tulare-Porterville, CA 59.98
4 Merced, CA 59.31
5 Riverside-San Bernardino, CA 58.69
6 Ventura, CA 58.66
7 Fresno, CA 58.54
8 Honolulu, HI 58.41
9 Bakersfield, CA 58.32
10 Stockton-Lodi, CA 58.17
11 Orange County, CA 58.16
12 Modesto, CA 57.98
13 Salt Lake City-Ogden, UT 57.91
14 Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV 57.75
15 San Jose, CA 57.45
16 Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA 57.44
17 Vallejo-Fairfield-Napa, CA 57.35
18 Yakima, WA 57.11
19 Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Lompoc, CA 56.89
20 Yuma, AZ 56.65
Rank MSA Name CANDY & GUM ($/HH)
1 Barnstable-Yarmouth, MA 104.70
2 Boulder-Longmont, CO 102.07
3 Portland, ME 99.49
4 Billings, MT 98.56
5 Portland-Vancouver, OR-WA 98.25
6 Anchorage, AK 98.24
7 Fort Collins-Loveland, CO 97.75
8 Cedar Rapids, IA 97.46
9 Denver, CO 97.40
10 Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA 97.19
11 Reno, NV 97.11
12 Pittsfield, MA 96.91
13 Rochester, MN 96.68
14 Eugene-Springfield, OR 96.51
15 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI 96.39
16 Medford-Ashland, OR 96.08
17 Spokane, WA 95.86
18 Madison, WI 95.81
19 New London-Norwich, CT 95.65
20 Springfield, IL 95.54
Ham Consumption per Capita
Top 20 MSAs
Rank MSA Name HAM FRESH AND CANNED ($/HH)
1 Nassau-Suffolk, NY 60.31
2 Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, NJ 58.50
3 Laredo, TX 57.94
4 Trenton, NJ 57.49
5 Bergen-Passaic, NJ 57.44
6 Newark, NJ 57.29
7 Newburgh, NY-PA 56.97
8 Dutchess County, NY 56.76
9 New Haven-Brdgprt-Stmfrd-Dnbry-Wtrbry,CT 56.05
10 Vineland-Millville-Bridgeton, NJ 55.76
11 McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 55.59
12 Monmouth-Ocean, NJ 55.29
13 Provo-Orem, UT 54.98
14 Lancaster, PA 54.95
15 Boston-Wrcstr-Lwrnce-Lowll-Brcktn, MA-NH 54.94
16 Philadelphia, PA-NJ 54.63
17 New York, NY 54.45
18 Brownsville-Harlingen-San Benito, TX 54.41
19 Hartford, CT 54.23
20 New London-Norwich, CT 54.21
About Claritas
Based in San Diego, Calif., Claritas Inc. is regarded as the premier worldwide provider of precision marketing solutions, developed, in part, through intricate customer segmentation systems and other such marketing tools. Claritas is a division of VNU Marketing Information (MI), an established leader in providing a wide variety of industries with innovative precision-marketing solutions including geo-demographic information and qualitative audience research. VNU MI is a part of VNU, which also includes ACNielsen, Nielsen Media Research, Spectra Marketing Systems, Scarborough Research, VNU Business Publications USA, VNU eMedia, and VNU Expositions. To learn more about Claritas and VNU products and services visit their web sites at www.claritas.com and www.VNU.com.
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