Texas city still a big player in youth market

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area is a prime target for merchants selling children's products, according to projected population and spending increases by statisticians at New York-based Easy Analytic Software Inc. (EASI).

Among the 934 U.S. metro areas, the greater Dallas area ranks in the upper 15% for its juvenile population. And the number of children 11 years and younger is expected to increase 5% by 2010, compared with a flat growth projection for the U.S. as a whole for the same time period.

Dwarfing the anticipated increase in the number of Dallas children is an even larger projected jump in the amount spent on kids products. Between 2005 and 2010, spending on kids products in the Dallas metro is expected to increase from 29% to 33%. That compares with increases ranging between 22% and 25% nationwide.

Dallas denizens will have the wherewithal to purchase whatever they want in the way of juvenile products. The expected median household income of $66,206 in 2010 will exceed the national median by more than 14%, and the number of residents with annual income of at least $100,000 is to rise by 70%.

Household formation is burgeoning in Dallas, with an EASI-predicted growth rate over the next five years almost double the U.S. projected growth of 7%. The Dallas overall rate of nearly 14% is easily outpaced by the anticipated growth in Asian and Hispanic households, up 28% and 27%, respectively, offering a unique opportunity for local retailers to expand their businesses.

Dallas is getting ready for more kids. Already in place is a special "kid's corner" on the official City Hall Web site, which links to all kinds of activities for children. These include special programs at the Dallas Museum of Natural History and The Science Place, the mayor's summer reading program at the Dallas Public Library and "Trinity Trudy," a cartoon dragonfly that offers games to educate children about pollution in the city's storm water drains.