Free Purchasing Power Profiles and Workforce Density Data for All Census Tracts and Residential ZIP Codes in U.S. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute provides comparison data on purchasing power, business activity, and workforce density for all census tracts, residential ZIP codes, and the 100 largest metro areas in the U.S. The profiles are designed to help cities, companies, developers, small business owners, and community organizations assess the advantages of urban density for underserved city neighborhoods. Purchasing Power by Census Tracts for custom made printouts of purchasing power for 16 retail categories and data on the workforce population for any U.S. census tract. Purchasing Power by ZIP Code for data on retail expenditures for 16 consumer areas, retail and business establishments, and the available workforce for all residential zipcodes in the U.S. Purchasing Power Rankings for Top 100 Metro Areas for ZIP code rankings of each of the 16 retail expenditure categories for the 100 largest metro areas. Free Geographic Databases for shapefiles and business, household, and workforce census databases to help map your area. Maps of Purchasing Power for Food-at-Home and Apparel to download free maps of purchasing power for the top 100 metro areas in the U.S. Urban Markets Retail Sales Leakage/Surplus Drill Downs to show the difference between each metro neighborhood's purchasing power and estimated retail sales. Methodology for a description of the methodology used for the purchasing power profiles and the retail sales leakage/surplus estimates.

ETI Drill Down Tool Kit HomePage

To Find Census Tracts in Your Community

You can locate the census tract for a specific address at the U.S. Census Bureau Factfinder Advanced Geography Search page using the GEOGRAPHY "address search" or "map" option.

For maps of census tracts in any community, go to the www.census.gov/geo/www/maps/descriptwindows/outline.htm. Click on "Census Tract Outline Maps 2000." Select your state, then county. Then select the PDF file for your county or select the first PDF file to locate the tracts for your part of the county.

Caution! Marketing Stereotypes May Be Harmful to Your Neighborhood's Health

Based on our experience in Milwaukee, we urge cities and neighborhoods to use caution when securing databases from many of the major marketing firms.

1. Nearly all of the emphasis of the marketing firm data is placed on average household income, while the density of urban neighborhoods is ignored. Rather than comparing purchasing power per square mile, marketing companies usually rank neighborhoods primarily based on household income, race and desirable "family types." A marketing industry has evolved of segmentation models and stereotypes (under such trademark names as PRIZM, MOSAIC, ACORN, MicroVision, Tapestry, P$CYLE, LifeP$YCLE) by firms such as Claritas, CACI, ESRI, and Experian.

   Typically, sparsely populated suburban areas with high average household income are ranked as "winners" while densely populated urban areas with concentrations of lower-income households are ranked as "losers." These rankings are often used to steer businesses away from densely populated city neighborhoods and into "urban sprawl" communities, where malls and retail outlets compete for customers driving to their location from longer and longer distances.

2. National marketing firms frequently use racial and class-based stereotypes to describe urban neighborhoods. For example, CACI reported that African Americans in Milwaukee (and in many other cities) "splurge on fast food and spend leisure time going to bars and dancing" and that residents of a local neighborhood with a significant Hispanic population "don't know the amount of money needed to retire comfortably." Claritas described residents of a Milwaukee African American neighborhood as "very low income families [who] buy video games, dine at fast food chicken restaurants [and] use non-prescription cough syrup" while describing weathy white suburbanites as "interested in civic activities, volunteer work, contributions and travel." A review of zipcode profiles for other cities uncovered identical descriptions used to characterize hundreds of urban neighborhoods around the country. In some cases these market segmentation models, sorted in large part by race, have helped steer businesses away from African American and Latino customers and central city neighborhoods. See
   • Confronting Anti-Urban Marketing Stereotypes: A Milwaukee Economic Development Challenge.

   • Exposing Urban Legends: The Real Purchasing Power of Central City Neighborhoods a discussion paper for The Brookings Institution.

   In 2001, after Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist criticized Claritas and CACI for using misleading information that discouraged business expansion in innercity neighborhoods, the president and CEO of Claritas reported to the press that his marketing company would remove references to gambling or use of tobacco and alcohol in characterizing neighborhoods. The new stereotypes subsequently posted on the Internet, however, described central city Milwaukee African Americans as "inner city strugglers" who "watch a lot of television and listen to a lot of radio."

3. In many cases, the "geodemographic segmentation" overlay of stereotypes generated by computer do not relate to the community described. In one marketing firm's apparent attempt to provide a more "positive" image of a lower-income Milwaukee neighborhood, elderly low-income African American residents were described by Claritas as stamp collectors and shoppers at "Banana Republic." The website for ESRI, a firm offering a community segmentation model as part of its package of data for businesses and educational institutions, described the two predominant household types of San Quentin (ZIP Code 94964) as "Cozy and Comfortable" (i.e., "older, settled married couples") and "Laptops and Lattes" ("the most eligible and unencumbered marketplace") without reporting 96 percent of the population in the zipcode as incarcerated.

4. Ignoring urban density in their standard products, marketing firms now team up with non-profit organizations to sell special "inner city" databases and analyses to promote urban communities. At the same time, these firms' websites and client reports continue to denigrate central city neighborhoods. A popular new approach (i.e., marketing niche) is to argue that central city neighborhoods are profitable retail markets only when special studies are utilized tapping into their "underground economy," unreported income sources, welfare and food stamp payments, and "barter" economies. City governments are asked to pay for specially tailored "inner city" reports while the same marketing firms distribute anti-urban, racially-driven segmentation market profiles and reports stressing average household income (rather than per square mile expenditures) to their national customers.

ETI Drill Down Tool Kit

Free customized drilldown reports are available for each U.S. census tract (or combination of tracts) showing the characteristics of jobs located in each neighborhood by type of employer, industry, earnings, occupations, means of transportation to work, and the race/ethnicity and age of workers. Complementary tables are available on the type of jobs and characteristics of local residents working inside or outside of their neighborhood.

Purchasing Power Profiles (PPPs)

Building upon a successful project with the City of Milwaukee and the Helen Bader Foundation, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Employment and Training Institute now provides free data on purchasing power by neighborhood for the entire United States. These databases identify spending for major retail expenditure categories, recognizing the density advantages of many lower-income central city neighborhoods that are typically ignored by national marketing firm data. The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee is making its zipcode level database available at no cost for educational, government and commercial users throughout the United States, to help central city communities maximize the strengths of their neighborhoods and to provide accurate data without the anti-urban and race-based stereotypes imbedded in marketing firm models.

• Milwaukee: To review "drill down" purchasing power profiles for individual ZIP codes in Milwaukee, see the Purchasing Power Profiles of City of Milwaukee ZIP Codes and Suburban Areas. Individual reports in PDF format include comparison tables for 53 Milwaukee area zipcodes, graphs, aerial photos and density maps.

  The City of Milwaukee website includes a map of Milwaukee County zipcodes, links to the most recent purchasing power reports, and contact information for businesses interested in expanding or locating in Milwaukee. See also an example of power point presentations prepared for the City in 2001 on on purchasing power and economic opportunities within a 3-mile radius of Cesar E. Chavez Drive and W. National Avenue, on Milwaukee's near southside.

• Pittsburgh: Graduate students at the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University partnered with the Employment and Training Institute to prepare Pittsburgh Purchasing Power Profiles [PDF format] and analysis comparing two underserved neighborhoods (the Hill District and McKeesport) with neighborhoods historically "more successful in attracting investment" (South Side Flats and Monroeville). See media coverage and a description of the public policy class project at the Heinz School site.

  A second project class addressed issues related to attracting a supermarket to Pittsburgh's Hill District. The class has posted a series of helpful materials, including marketing flyers, a power point presentation for developers, and a 66-page technical paper. Project materials address issues of crime in the neighborhood, highway and river barriers limiting the value of traditional 1-mile circle analyses of markets, residents' current access to supermarkets, transportation issues for lower-income residents, and estimated grocery sales potential for an available Urban Redevelopment Authority site in the Hill District.

• New Orleans: Faculty at Southern University at New Orleans and the Employment and Training Institute are collaborating to develop purchasing power analyses of targeted neighborhoods in the New Orleans metro area and to develop customized mapping and reports.

• Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU): Under the leadership of former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, the Congress for the New Urbanism is using purchasing power and urban density research as part of its work supporting walkable, efficient, and livable cities and towns.

• The Brookings Institution: The Brookings Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy identified the Employment and Training Institute for its work utilizing local and national data to measure purchasing power in urban neighborhoods. See Exposing Urban Legends: The Real Purchasing Power of Central City Neighborhoods published by The Brookings Institution.