Personal Characteristics 



The socio-economic characteristics 2/ 

 of the households and homemakers in all 

 three cities differed considerably with re- 

 spect to race, religion, income, birthplace 

 of parents , employment status , and edu- 

 cation. In Birmingham, 36 percent of the 

 households were Negro ccanpared with 19 per- 

 cent in Detroit and only 2 percent in 

 Boston . 



Percent*^ of 

 respondents 



Boston Detroit Birmlnghaa 



FIGURE IV. —PERCENTAGE OF 



NEGRO RESPONDENTS 

 AMONG HOUSEHOLDS SURVEYED 



In Birmingham, 6 percent of the re- 

 spondents were Catholics as compared to 3li 

 percent in Detroit and 58 percent in Boston. 

 The remainder comprised families of the 

 Protestant religion, for the most part. A 

 significantly higher proportion of the Bir- 

 mingham families have a lower income than 

 is the case for Boston and Detroit. Only 

 3 percent of the Birmingham respondents 

 said one or both of their parents were born 

 outside of the United States compared with 

 U2 percent in Boston and 28 percent in 

 Detroit. A slightly higher proportion of 

 the Birmingham respondents were employed as 

 compared with the two other cities. Finally, 

 a higher proportion of the Boston respond- 

 ents received an education beyond the 

 eighth grade than in Birmingham and Detroit. 



The personal characteristics of the 

 households and homemakers were tabulated 

 for each of the canned sardine consup.ption 



2/ See table 52. 



groups as defined for this study. In Bii'- 

 mingham, use of sardines increases in 

 households where the number of people eat- 

 ing at home is 7 or more; in households 

 where the husband's occupation is manual, 

 skilled, semiskilled, or unskilled; in 

 households where the age of the respond- 

 ents is 1(6 to 55; households with family 

 incomes of less than $ij,0O0j where the 

 education of the homemaker does not extend 

 beyond the eighth grade; and among Negroes. 

 Among Negroes, the change is very great; 

 only 16 percent of the "never users" were 

 Negroes, compared to 38 percent among the 

 "sporadic users;" 37 percent among the 

 "light users;" and no less than 83 pe"rcent 

 among the "heavy users ." 



In Boston, the most significant dif- 

 ferences are between heavy users and all 

 other "user" groups. The "heavy users" 

 include higher proportions of families with 

 5 or more people eating at home; households 

 in which the respondent is not employed 

 outside of the home; households in which 

 the homemaker is 36 to hS years of age; 

 households in which the parents of the home- 

 maker were foreign born; and Catholic house- 

 holds. 



In Detroit, the "heavy users" include 

 higher proportions of households where the 

 husband's occupation is manual; households 

 in which the education of the homemaker did 

 not extend beyond the eighth grade; house- 

 holds in which the homemaker was born in 

 the Southern States; Catholic households; 

 and Negro households. 



A statistical summary of findings 

 based on classification of the data by 

 personal characteristics of the households^ 

 together with data on product image dis- 

 cussed subsequently in this report, will be 

 made available for a limited time upon re- 

 quest to the Fish and Wildlife Service by 

 persons having a need for such data. 



THE SARDINE CAN 



Size of Can 



Nearly 90 percent of the sardine users 

 in all three cities bought sardines in the 

 small can. The large can is bought by 20 

 percent in Detroit, 17 percent in Birming- 

 ham, and 12 percent in Boston. Range in 

 can size was established by showing pic- 

 tures of cans to the respondents . In all 

 three cities, only one-eighth of the 



