Regardless of age, texting is still, technically, the second most common activity that Americans engage in on their cell phone after talking. During a typical week, 95% of mobile adults talk on their mobile phone, while 59% text. Among adults ages 18-to-24, however, 89% talk on their phone and 85% text. Despite the increasing availability of mobile chat or instant message applications, texting remains the dominant means for exchanging short messages. Only 8% of all mobile adults use their phone to IM or chat.

The fastest thumbs

To get a more in-depth understanding of the texting habits of adults today, we leveraged data from the Simmons Connect mobile panel of 1,485 U.S. smartphone owners. Hands down, young adults text more than any age other age group. During a typical month, in fact, smartphone-owners ages 18-to-24 send 2,022 mobile text messages and receive another 1,831 for a combined total of 3,852 texts sent and received. With every age bracket we move up, the number of mobile texts drops by roughly 40%. For instance, smartphone owners ages 25-to-34 send, on average, 1,110 text messages a month and receive another 1,130 for a combined total of 2,240 messages.

We are also able to leverage the Simmons Connect smartphone panel to understand mobile calling behaviors. The data shows that while young adults hold the record for the most text messages sent and received, they actually make and receive few calls, by comparison. During a typical month, smartphone owners ages 18-to-24 make 119 calls on their mobile phone and answer another 64 calls. Adults ages 35-to-44 make and receive the most calls on their mobile phones in a given month. (Call counts do not include inbound and outbound calls that go unanswered.)

Text around the clock

Unlike television and radio, which have peak hours for reaching consumers, mobile text messages reach Americans throughout the day, providing advertisers with a medium to connect with consumers any time they want or need.

No surprise, young adults are the most likely to send and receive mobile text messages throughout the day. The smartphone panel data shows that during every hour between 8:00 A.M. and midnight, more than half of young smartphone owners are both sending and receiving mobile text messages. Even when most of us are asleep, young adults’ smartphones continue buzzing from inbound texts. In fact, 37% of 18-to-24 year-old smartphone owners receive texts at 4:00 in the morning. By comparison, just 20% of smartphone-owners ages 25-to-34 years-old receive texts at this late (or early) hour as do 17% of those 35-to-44, 15% of those 45-to-54 and 10% of those ages 55 and older.

Better to send or to receive?

During overnight hours, the share of young smartphone owners who send texts surpasses the share who receives them. However, by 8:00 A.M., the difference between those two figures narrows to the point that they are nearly equal. In fact, from noon until 11:00 P.M., young adults are more likely to send mobile text messages than they are to receive them.

Call or text?

While texting is still a secondary use of mobile phones after calling, that’s not the case all day, especially among young adults. In fact, while smartphone owners ages 18-to-24 are more likely to make an outbound call than they are to send a text from their phone between 7:00 A.M. and 10:00 P.M., they are more likely to send a text between 11:00 P.M. and 6:00 A.M., during hours when they might understandably wake the recipient. That should help us all sleep a little better.

When asked in July of this year, “Do you think that you are better off or worse off financially now than you were 12 months ago?” 26% of U.S. adults responded “better off,” while 30% responded “worse off” and 44% responded “about the same.” Taken as a snapshot, things still look pretty glum for the pocketbooks of Americans. But when we examine the trend over time, we see that every year more and more Americans say they’re doing better, while fewer are doing worse.

Specifically, in January 2009, just before President Obama took office, only 16% of adults said they were better off financially than they were a year earlier and fully half said they were worse off. In fact, since Obama took office, there has been a relative increase of 63% when it comes to the share of the electorate who say they are financially better off. Meantime, there has been a relative decrease of 60% in the share of adults who say they are financially worse off. Both trends support the argument that Americans are better off today than they were when Obama was elected. If only things were so simple.

When it comes to personal economic outlook and that of the U.S. economy, many Americans are still uncertain. It is true that when asked in July, “Do you think that in the coming 12 months you will be better off or worse off financially than you are now?” 37% of adults say that they expect they will be better off, which is nearly double the share of Americans who say they will be worse off in the next year (19%). Furthermore, the share of adults who say they will be worse off has declined to 19% in July from a peak of 29% in January 2009. Still, since January 2010, Americans’ optimism (or pessimism) about their personal finances has remained relatively unchanged, suggesting that despite Americans increasingly reporting that they’re better off today, there is no groundswell in the belief that things will continue to improve.

Lack of confidence in the U.S. economy is likely a major driver behind this trend. In January 2012, there were more Americans who said that the American economy would be worse off in the coming year (36%) than those who predicted it will be better off (24%). Even today, pessimism outpaces optimism when it comes to our outlook towards the U.S. economy, but there is a small sign of hope. Between January and July 2012, the share of Americans who believe that the economy will be better off next year grew by a relative 8% and the share who believe it will be worse off declined by a relative 9%.

So while it seems that Americans indeed believe they are better off today than they were when they elected Obama, it’s unclear whether they have the they hope that things will continue to improve.

For more information about reaching swing voters, watch our PoliticalPersonas^SM webcast and read our blog post detailing the top indexing TV programs for reaching party loyals and swing voters.

Learn more about tracking consumer sentiment week-by-week with Simmons DataStream^SM.

The segments come from the PoliticalPersonas consumer segmentation system, which classifies U.S. adults into one of 10 unique segments based on the individual’s political outlook and party ID as well as their attitudes and opinions towards key topics.

The segments we will focus on in this post include the Super Democrats and Ultra Conservatives segments, which represent the most party loyal voters for Democrats and Republicans, respectively. We will also profile the TV preferences of three important swing voter segments during this election cycle, including: Mild Republicans, On the Fence Liberals and Green Traditionalists. For more information about the PoliticalPersonas segments, download the PoliticalPersonas Report.

The shows in each list include those cable and broadcast TV shows with the highest concentration of viewers from each segment. For example, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central has the highest concentration of Super Democrats of any non-news cable or broadcast show on TV. Likewise, Rules of Engagement on CBS has the highest concentration of Mild Republicans. Candidates, political organizations, and even traditional advertisers trying to connect with any of these voting segments would be wise to consider advertising on the programs listed below.

For more information on PoliticalPersonas, watch our Webcast.

A look into individual earnings and household incomes shows that lesbian women earn more than heterosexual women regardless of relationship status. Specifically, the typical adult lesbian woman personally earns $43,100 per year compared with $37,600 claimed by the average heterosexual woman. Furthermore, the typical household income of a married or partnered lesbian woman is $7,200 higher than that of a married or partnered heterosexual woman.

Mean individual earnings and household income of women, by sexual orientation

When it comes to individual income, gay and straight men may earn roughly the same amount, but married or partnered gay men personally take home nearly $8,000 more, on average, than their straight counterparts. Additionally, the average household income of a married or partnered gay man is $116,000 versus $94,500 for a straight married or partnered man.

Mean individual earnings and household income of men, by sexual orientation

Income levels are important to consider when targeting consumers, but more important is determining the amount of money they have left over after the bills are paid for non-essentials. Despite having higher incomes, some may be surprised to learn that lesbian women have only the same amount as heterosexual women to spend on discretionary items. Likewise, gay men have less than heterosexual men for non-essentials overall, even though their incomes overall are quite equal. This is mostly likely due to the fact that both lesbian and gay adults tend to reside in larger cities where the cost of living can be considerably higher.

Interestingly though, when household size is brought into the equation, we see that gay males actually have more to spend on non-essentials per capita than straight men. Gay men, for instance, live in households that spend $6,256 per capita annually on discretionary spending, nearly $1,000 more than what the households of heterosexual men spend per person.

For more demographic and attitudinal information on the trends among the LGBT population, download the 2012 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered Demographic Report.

As a growing number of U.S. states pass laws recognizing same-sex marriages and civil unions, we see an increasing percentage of gay and lesbian Americans reporting that they’re married. Five years ago, for example, when only Massachusetts allowed same-sex marriage, 8% of adult gay men and 14% of adult lesbian women said they were married. Today, 12% of gay men and a full quarter of lesbian women are married. During the same timeframe, marriage rates among heterosexuals fell slightly. Today, 58% of heterosexual men and 53% of heterosexual women are married. Compare that to 60% of straight men and 55% of straight women who were married in 2007.

Percent of adults currently married, by sexual orientation

While marriage is a growing trend among the LGBT population, many gay and lesbian adults (as well as many heterosexuals) live with their partners without tying the knot. Today, two-thirds of lesbian women and 46% of gay men live in a household with one and only one member of the same sex. As expected, the majority of married gays and lesbians are found in these household formations, but we can expect to find many cohabitating couples in this arrangement as well. Among heterosexual adults, 71% of men and 61% of women share a home with one and only one adult of the opposite sex, the comparable formation most likely to contain married and partnered straight couples.

Percent of lesbian and gay adults who live with zero, one or two+ adults of the same sex

Percent of heterosexual adults who live with zero, one or two+ adults of the opposite sex

For more demographic and attitudinal information on the trends among the LGBT population, download the 2012 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered Demographic Report.

1. 39% of Facebook users say “this website gives me something to talk about.”
2. Top 3 reasons Facebook users visit social networking sites:
   • 86% to keep in touch with friends
   • 72% for fun
   • 66% to reconnect with/find people they’ve lost touch with
3. 78% of Facebook users have shown support for a group or business on a social networking site.
4. 34% of Facebook users have played games on a social networking site. Among those:
   • 73% play social games (like Farmville, SIMS social, etc)
   • 68% play casual games (like Bejeweled, etc)
   • 73% play games on a social networking site once or more a day
5. 28% of Facebook users with cell phones and 42% of Facebook users with a tablet computer have downloaded a social networking app for the device
6. Adult residents of the following Designated Market Areas (DMAs) with 1,000,000 or more adult residents are the most likely to have visited Facebook in the last 7 days: )
   • Seattle-Tacoma, WA
   • Austin, TX
   • Salt Lake City, UT
   • Portland, OR
   • Washington, DC
7. 15% of Facebook visitors follow a musical group on a social networking site, 14% follow a TV show, 11% follow a newspaper or news outlet and 4% follow a magazine.
8. The average Facebook user is 39.3 years old.
9. The average Facebook user claims an annual household income of $69,900 with annual household spending on discretionary goods and services of $15,500.
10. Hispanic users of Facebook are 55% more likely than non-Hispanic users to say they like to follow their favorite brands or companies on social networking sites.

Don’t miss 15 stats about Facebook, previously posted on the Experian Marketing services blog. . For more information like the data provided above please download the Experian Marketing Services 2012 Digital Marketer report.

Download The 2012 Digital Marketer report for more on the behaviors and habits of American voters.

Check out The 2012 Digital Marketer report for even more information about the behaviors and trends of today’s mobile consumers.

By having a detailed understanding of key voter segments, including in-depth demographics, responsiveness to various media platforms, and attitudes and opinions on important political issues and social trends, marketers can do a better job bringing home the vote this November.

To learn more about the PoliticalPersonas segments, download The 2012 Digital Marketer report.

In 2007, Experian Simmons created the GreenAware consumer segmentation, which classified respondents to the Simmons National Consumer Study between 2005 until 2007 into one of four mutually exclusive segments based on their consumer behaviors and attitudes toward the environment. Since then, Experian Simmons has continuously classified all adult respondents into the GreenAware segments providing our clients with valuable insights into the evolution of the environmental movement.

The four GreenAware segments are:

• Behavioral Greens: This group of people thinks and acts green. They have negative attitudes towards products that pollute and incorporate green practices into their lives on a regular basis.
• Think Greens: This group of consumers think green, but don’t always act green.
• Potential Greens: This group neither behaves, nor thinks along particularly environmentally conscious lines and remains on the fence about key green issues.
• True Browns: They are not environmentally conscious, and may in fact have negative attitudes about environmental issues.

Since 2005, we have observed a nearly constant increase in the percent of U.S. adults who are classified as Behavioral Greens, the “greenest” segment of the four. Today, 33% of adults are Behavioral Greens, up from 27% who were classified as such in 2005. Meantime, Think Greens have maintained an almost perfectly constant 21% share of the population. The size of the True Browns segment has also remained constant at between 14% and 15% of the total adult population. The Potential Green segment, however, has steadily declined in market share from 39% in 2005 to 31% today.

La Vida Verde

Hispanic Americans have traditionally been ahead of the curve when it comes to green thoughts and deeds and they’re only getting greener with time. Today, 39% of Hispanic adults are Behavioral Greens, up from 33% in 2007. Just 32% of non-Hispanic adults are Behavioral Greens today, up from 29% who fell into the greenest segment in 2007.

Interestingly, among the True Browns segment there are virtually no Hispanics to be found, and, in fact, while the True Brown population is actually growing among non-Hispanics, Hispanics are increasingly moving to greener segments. Specifically, just 1.3% of Hispanics are True Browns today, down from 8% who registered as such in 2007. By comparison, 17% of non-Hispanics are True Browns today, up from 14% in 2007.

Green Today, Greener Tomorrow?

The illustration below shows the alignment of America’s largest metropolitan areas with the four GreenAware segments today and in 2007. We see that residents of the San Francisco-, New York- and Miami-areas are the most likely to be in alignment with the Behavioral Green mindset today. Denizens of Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston tend to fit more closely with the Think Green set that has green attitudes and intentions, but not always the actions to back it up.

But things are changing. In fact, since 2007, we’ve seen that as local minds change, some cities become aligned with a different, often greener, segment. Let’s look at Chicago, for instance. In 2007, Chicagoans’ environmental outlook was more reflective of a mix of Potential Greens and True Browns. Since then, local attitudes have changed so much that Chicago-area residents are now more aligned with Think Greens and Behavioral Greens. Likewise, Cleveland, which was clearly a True Brown town in 2007, now falls in step with the Potential Green segment. In five years’ time, who knows? Cleveland could be America’s next green leader.

Not brown now towns

Looking at markets large and small with the biggest drop in concentration of True Browns, we see that attitudes in inland markets located in Gulf States have become disproportionately less brown since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. In fact, seven of the ten Designated Market Areas (DMA) that saw the biggest decline in the percentage of their population classified as True Browns between 2007 and 2011 are inland markets in states bordering the Gulf of Mexico.

While the oil didn’t directly reach these markets, the attitude change did spread: For example, 3.2% of adults residing in the Columbus-Tupelo-West Point, Mississippi DMA today are classified as True Browns, down from 19.3% who were categorized as such in 2007. In Macon, Georgia, while not a Gulf State, a more impressive shift took place. In 2007, the Macon, Georgia DMA had the fourth highest percentage of its population classified as True Browns (20.1%) out of 209 DMAs. Today, only 5.8% of area residents are True Browns, which makes it the market with the 10th lowest concentrations of True Browns in the nation. Macon still has one of the lowest shares of residents who are Behavioral Greens in the nation, but what a difference a few years makes.

While the towns directly in the path of the oil spill are not among those with the biggest relative decline in True Browns, area residents’ attitudes did take on a greener hue since the spill. Today, 8.4% of residents in Panama City are True Browns down from 17.3% in 2007. Likewise, only 9.8% of adults in both the Mobile-Pensacola and Biloxi Gulfport DMAs are True Browns down from 17.3% and 19.0%, respectively, who fell into the least green segment prior to the spill.

Learn more about Experian Simmons consumer segmentation offerings