Marketers frequently talk about Generation Y and how to target them, but maybe they should start with where Millennials are. According to the Market Finder tool on AdAge, the largest number of Millennials live in the bigggest metro areas, but the highest concentration of Millennials live in smaller markets.
New York City is home to nearly 4.4 million 18- to 34-year-olds, Los Angeles nearly 3.3 million and Chicago nearly 2.3 million. Dallas and Houston, with 1.6 million and 1.4 million Millennials respectively, round out the top five metro areas with the most Millennials.
Those numbers aren’t particularly surprising, or enlightening, considering those are five of the largest metro areas in the country. The highest concentration of Generation Yers, on the other hand, is typically in smaller college towns or near military bases without large diverse populations.
For example, Jacksonville, N.C., home of the Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune, and Ames, Iowa, home of Iowa State University, have nearly twice as many Millennials than a typical city and State College, Pa., near Penn State, is home to 77 percent more.
But, when considering the older members of Generation Y, those aged 25 to 34, or those who have completed college or basic training, Ames and State College lose their significant skews. In fact they have 20 to 25 percent fewer 25- to 34-year-olds than a typical city.
Generation Y is not sticking around their college towns. But where are they going?
The most interesting story is where these older Millennials live. These are the elusive buyers marketers typically care about the most. Most 25- to 34-year-olds are working and prefer to rent, which means they are more likely to have disposable incomes. According to the AdAge Market Finder, they’re spending that on specific things.
Older members of Generation Y spend about $50 more per capita on alcoholic beverages, $400 more on personal services and nearly $100 more on furniture. They’re also getting married, starting to have children and making other significant life changes which usually necessitate big purchases.
These Millennials are in mid-sized markets like Austin, Texas. There are 40 percent more late Millennials in Austin than a typical city and nearly 40 percent more in Salt Lake City. Fairbanks, Alaska, is home to 25 percent more 25- to 34-year-olds than a typical city.
These findings aren’t just interesting; they are telling a second story. Generation Y talks about not wanting to own cars and instead relying on public transportation; however, as a whole they are not clustering in areas where use of public transportation is prevalent. Although they may think buying a car is more painful than the dentist, they must be doing it anyway.
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