I would like some statistics to support the claim that businesses
should market to gays and lesbians. Can you provide me with
information about average income, spending power, early adopter
status, etc.

Hello reviewagent-ga,

The following reports and articles provide statistics related to
marketing to gays and lesbians, which include data such as average
income, spending power and early adopter status.



Forrester Research
Gays Are The Technology Early Adopters You Want
(Note: Registration is required to read the full report.  Registration
as a Guest is free.)
http://www.forrester.com/ER/Research/Brief/Excerpt/0,1317,17004,00.html
?Gay men and women have the technology attitudes and demographics that
marketers dream about. Gays are among the first to adopt new devices
and online tools, making them prime targets for digital marketing as
well as emerging technologies like TiVo.?
 
---

?The average household income for gay people is $61,300 compared with
$56,900 for heterosexuals (see Figure 1).  The income gap for men is
negligible -- but gay women earn $6,600 a year more than straight
women do.  Nineteen percent of both gay men and women have
post-graduate degrees, compared with 14% of heterosexual men and 12%
of heterosexual women.?

---

? Eighty percent of gay men and 76% of lesbians are online, compared
with 70% of straight men and 69% of straight women. And they're
bandwidth-hungry: Wired gays are one-third more likely to have
broadband than their heterosexual peers. Gays, in fact, were among the
earliest Internet adopters: 29% have been online more than seven
years, versus 18% of heterosexuals.?
 
 


Wilde Marketing
Pink Dollars
http://www.wildemarketing.com/pink_dollars.html
?Recent U.S. research has demonstrated:

84% of gays and lesbians hold a valid passport vs national average 29% U.S. 
94% of gays and lesbians would go out of their way to purchase
products and services marketed directly to them. (Source:Greenfield
Research & Kinsey Report)
21% of gays and lesbians report household income that surpasses
$100,000 per year. (Source: Simmons Market Research Bureau)
58% of the gay and lesbian community members hold management
positions. (Source: Simmons Market Research Bureau)
70% of gays and lesbians have at least a college education and work in
professional and managerial jobs. (Source:Greenfield Research & Kinsey
Report)
79% of gays and lesbians agree that it is important for them to work
in a gay/lesbian-friendly environment (Source: Greenfield Research &
Kinsey Report)
62% own a personal computer (Source: Mulryan/Nash Study)
The purchasing power of gay and lesbian U. S. adult consumers pink
dollars exceeded $450 billion in 1999 (Source: DiversityInc.com)?




Opus Comm Group, Inc
Selected highlights of the 2001 Gay/Lesbian Consumer Online Census
?"A Syracuse University, OpusComm Group, GSociety Study"
http://opuscommgroup.com/GayLesbianConsumerHabits.html
?GLBT Household Income
                Men     Women 
Under   $30K    12%     20% 
$30K - $69,999  37%     41% 
$70K - $99,999  22%     20% 
$100K+          29%     16%?




Foxnews.com
Does Spending Power Buy Cultural Acceptance? 
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
By Robin Wallace 
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,97293,00.html
?According to the most recent research, gays comprise a $350 billion
market fiercely loyal to brands that advertise directly to them. Gays
are twice as likely to have graduated from college, twice as likely to
have an individual income over $60,000 and twice as likely to have a
household income of $250,000 or more. They are essentially an untapped
consumer market that corporate America can no longer ignore.?




Gay Buying Power Estimated at $485 Billion in 2003 
Witeck-Combs Communications and MarketResearch.com Update 2003 Analysis
http://www.witeckcombs.com/show.news.asp?id=193&format=pdf




Reaching the 450 Billion Dollar Gay and Lesbian Market 
http://www.mzinc.biz/clinic_12_ar01.asp




Coming Out In Print - industries seek out gay consumers
American Demographics,  Feb 1, 2003  
http://articles.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4021/is_1_25/ai_96734623




News Room
http://opuscommgroup.com/NewsRoom.html




The Myth of Gay Affluence
Why does the world think we?re so well off? And how is it hurting us that they do?
by John W. Stiles
http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/issue/i04-01/myth.html





I hope you have found this information helpful.  If you have any
questions, please request clarification prior to rating the answer.

Googlenut




Google Search Terms:


marketing gays income
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=marketing+gays+income

gays OR homosexuals "buying OR spending power"
://www.google.com/search?q=gays+OR+homosexuals+%22buying+OR+spending+power%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&start=10&sa=N

The Wall Street Journal ran an article about this earlier in 2004, and
I have subsequently done a market sizing analysis to veryify the
results.  Interestingly, based on numerous surveys since the 1970s,
the "10% gay population" number turns out to be an urban legend.  That
said, even 4% is a large number in a country of nearly 300MM, so this
is a market definitely worth watching and learning more about.
 
The way that "gay" is defined affects the numbers significantly.  If
gay = "any sexual encounter w/ the same sex," the numbers are roughly
2-3x higher (8-10%).  If gay = "sustained proclivity for and
engagement in sexual encounters with the same sex," then gay hovers
b/w 2-4%.  The most recent and thorough studies were done in the early
nineties.  They found that the percent gay (U.S.) was between 1-4%. 
The following charts some of the most prominent studies since 1970. 
Given your querey, you probably know that the sciences of statistics
and demographics have led to dramatic improvement in polling accuracy
in the last few decades, much to the delight of marketers (see below,
WSJ).

Kinsey-NORC 1970 ? 8.2% M, 4.3% F after age 15
Bell/Weinberg 1970 ? < 2% total M and F (ratings of siblings)
Cameron/Ross 1975-78 ? 3.1% M, 3.9% F
FRI 1983 ? 5.4% M, 3.6% F (4,340 respondents)
FRI-Dallas 1984 ? 10.7% M, 7.4% F after age 12
MacDonald 1988 ? 2% total M and F (> 5,500 college student
respondents, Canada)Trocki 1988-89 ? 3% M, 2% F
NCHS 1988-91 ? 3.5% M since 1977 (over 50,000 respondents)
RTI-Dallas 1989 ? 7.6% M, 2.7% F since 1978
GSS 1989 ? < 6.3% M after age 17
GSS 1990 ? 4.8% M after age 17
Catania/NABS 1992 ? 2% M, 2% F (4% in urban areas; 10,600 respondents)
Billy/Battelle 1993 ? 1.1% M
Billy/Guttmacher 1993 ? 2.3% M in last 10 years

Because marketers are in the business of knowing exactly how many of
what types of people are in the market, they pay a lot for precise
demographic information gleaned from studies.  To wit, this from the
Wall Street Journal:
 
Current U.S. population:   290MM
Projected gay population:  14MM
Percent gay:    4.8%
 
("Viacom Plans a Gay Channel, But the Reception Isn't Clear," WALL
STREET JOURNAL , March 29, 2004; Page B1 , By JOE FLINT )

GAY CLOUT
Gay and lesbians, a demographic segment with hefty spending clout, are tuning in: 
? Estimated U.S. population: 14 million
? Average household income: $61,300
? Spending power: $400 billion to $475 billion annually
? Favorite shows*: 'Will & Grace' (NBC); 'Queer as Folk' (Showtime);
'Six Feet Under' (HBO); 'Trading Spaces' (TLC)
 
*Of 8,000 surveyed, before 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' became a hit 

Sources: Forrester Research; Prime Access; OpusComm Group; Syracuse University 
  
Last, here is an interesting site from a gay advocacy organization in
the UK that's fairly straight forward: www.avert.org/hsexu1.htm

Good luck, and best wishes.