Research News

Season's Greetings!

This holiday season, in the average county, it is estimated that residents will spend $365 per child on toys. The average is projected to rise to $470 in 2002, according to statistics by National Decision Systems.

An average child in Arlington County, Va., a county in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, can expect to receive $900 worth of toys - more than double the national average. Of course, the median household income is $62,000 - $24,000 more than the national average. In 2002, the amount spent per child in Arlington County is expected to be approximately $1,200.

In Sarasota County, Fla., where only 16 percent of the residents are children, toy spending per child is $702. Of course, most of the toys bought in this county will probably be shipped to grandchildren across the United States.

In contrast, the amount spent on toys per child is estimated to be $165 in Apache County, Ariz., where the median household income is $16,000. Similarly, children in Hidalgo County, Texas, where the median household income is $21,000, can expect to receive approximately $195 worth of toys.

What's on the menu and where does it come from?
Turkey is a very popular food throughout the holiday season. In 1992, farmers sold more than 279 million turkeys, with 35 percent, or 99 million turkeys, being raised and sold in the states of North Carolina and Minnesota. The four top turkey-selling counties in 1992 were Duplin County, N.C.; Rockingham County, Va.; Union County, N.C., and Kandiyohi County, Minn.

There is a 45 percent chance that the green beans you serve at your holiday feasts come from farms in Wisconsin, New York or Florida. In 1992, the leading green bean-harvesting counties were Miami Dade, Fla.; Portage, Wis., and Marion, Ore.

If your vegetable of choice is sweet corn, there is a 45 percent chance that your corn was harvested in one of three states: Wisconsin, Minnesota or Washington. In 1992, the top three counties in the production of sweet corn were Palm Beach County, Fla., with 33,776 acres; Grant County, Wash., with 27,586 acres; and Fond du Lac County, Wis., with 21,846 acres.

In 1992, Johnston County, N.C.; Nash County, N.C. and Merced County, Calif., accounted for 29 percent of all sweet potatoes grown in the United States.

Cranberry sauce is another traditional food often served during the holidays. In 1992, Massachusetts and Wisconsin harvested 79 percent of the cranberry crop. Of the 3.9 million cranberries harvested, more than 1.5 million came from Plymouth County, Mass.; 400,000 came from Wood County, Wis., and 300,000 came from Jackson County, Wis.

Although pumpkins were grown in every state in 1992, Illinois, with 8,297 acres, had the most acreage of pumpkin patches. Within Illinois, Tazewell County accounted for 33 percent, or 2,730 acres, of pumpkins.

If cherry pie is your favorite, the odds are that the cherries were grown in Michigan, as 70 percent of the nation's cherries (311 million pounds) were grown there in 1992. Two counties within Michigan, Leelanau and Oceana, produced one-third of the nation's cherry crop.

Happy Holidays from the Research Division!

(Research News was written by Peggy Beardslee, research assistant.)