About $30 billion a year in local buying power — sitting inside a national market that still aims only ~4% of its ad spend at Latinos. The money is here; the attention isn't. That gap is the opportunity.
DMV Latino buying power is estimated at about $30 billion a year — a proxy estimate built on Latino-native inputs (Selig Center methodology applied to DMV Latino household counts and incomes). That local money sits inside a national pattern that has not caught up: nationally, Latinos are ~20% of the U.S. population but receive only ~4% of U.S. ad spend, a share that has crept from 3% to 4% in twenty-five years. The two figures are deliberately different scopes — $30B is local DMV buying power; the ~4% is the national share of U.S. ad spend reaching Latinos. Local money, meeting a national blind spot. The mismatch is the opening.
Source: Buying power — Selig Center for Economic Growth methodology applied to DMV Latino households ($30B+, a modeled proxy estimate, not a directly observed total). Ad-spend share — ANA/AIMM industry reporting 2024 (~20% of population, ~4% of U.S. ad spend; national). National $4.1T Latino-economy figure from industry reporting.
Treat that mismatch as a market-structure fact, not a slogan. When a fifth of a metro controls tens of billions in spending and receives a low-single-digit share of category attention, the audience is under-priced relative to its value — the marketing equivalent of an asset trading below book. Early movers capture share cheaply because competition for the audience is thin; late movers pay a premium to dislodge incumbents who got there first.
The national context makes the scale clear: the U.S. Latino economy is roughly $4.1 trillion and chronically under-addressed. The DMV's ~$30B is its local slice — large enough to plan against, and reachable today before the discount closes.
Two scopes on purpose — local money against a national attention pattern.
The two figures are deliberately different scopes: the $30B is local DMV buying power, while the ~4% is the national share of U.S. ad spend reaching Latinos — a share that has moved only from 3% to 4% in twenty-five years. Local money, against a national attention pattern ($4.1T Latino economy, chronically under-addressed) that has not caught up.
A market that is both worth more than its attention and split wider than its headline number.
An estimated $30B+ in annual DMV Latino buying power — a proxy estimate on Latino-native inputs. Tens of billions, in one metro, in one underserved audience.
Nationally, Hispanic-aimed ad spend has crept from 3% to 4% of the U.S. total over twenty-five years — for a group that is ~20% of the country. The gap is the opportunity.
Latino median household income runs $121K in DC versus $82K in Prince George's — a ~$39K gap inside one metro. The market is valuable, but it is not one price point.
DMV Latinos run roughly 1.5× the national Latino rate on household income, but the headline hides a wide spread. DC Latinos are an outlier even by U.S. standards: median household income tops the general population there, at about $121,094. In Prince George's the Latino median is about $81,810 — a roughly $39K gap inside a single metro. Fairfax sits near $110K and Montgomery near $107K. That spread is the single most important planning fact in the buying-power story: a brand that reads only the regional average will misprice both ends — too premium for one cohort, too value-coded for the other.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024, table B19013I (median household income, Hispanic-origin universe). National Latino comparison rates from ACS. Latino-native.
A fifth of the metro controls tens of billions in spending and receives a low-single-digit share of category attention. That is the cleanest commercial argument in the whole report: the audience is under-priced because competition for it is thin, and the brand that arrives first buys its position cheaply. The rest of the DMV Latino Decision Map is, in effect, a map of where that under-priced attention sits and how to reach it before the discount closes.
This page sized the prize. The companion reads cover how fast it's growing, who's inside it, and how to reach it.
832K Latinos, 19.3% of the region, and 53% of all recent regional growth.
Salvadoran-led, not Mexican-majority — six county-level personas inside one label.
The three operating rules and the owned channels that reach the whole market.
The complete DMV Latino Decision Map — every figure, sourced and labeled.
$30B in local buying power, an audience that competitors are leaving on the table, and a partner with 35 years of trust in it. Let's build your plan.