Pro Sports Fans Are More Likely to Be Vaccinated Across Almost Every Sport
CHICAGO, September 21, 2021 – Numerator, a data and tech company serving the market research space has published a COVID-19 Vaccinated Shopper Score report to identify and rank brands and retailers by percentage of vaccinated buyers, as well as vaccination scores by key demographics and psychographics. Organic, health-oriented, and East Coast brands and retailers lead, given higher vaccination rates among consumers who claim active lifestyles and healthy eating habits, and along the East Coast.
The report covers brands and companies in Grocery, Health & Beauty, Retailers (Food, Mass, Drug, Dollar, Club), Gas & Convenience, and Fast Food and indexes brand buyers by vaccination status to all buyers.
“Brands now have the opportunity to connect consumer buying behavior to much more detailed, individual information – in this case vaccination status,” said Eric Belcher, CEO, Numerator. “230,000 of the consumers in our panel have already shared their vaccination status with us in addition to their purchasing data, demographics and psychographics. This gives brands a more complete understanding of how their specific consumers are relating to the Delta variant and to design marketing and advertising that better resonates with them.”
Key findings include:
Demographics & Psychographics:
- Geographic Regions: New England leads in vaccination scores; South Central trails. East coast consumers are 13% more likely to be vaccinated than the average consumer with a Vaccinated Shopper Score of 113, followed by the Mid-Atlantic states (105). People in West South Central (91) and East South Central (90) states are the least likely to be vaccinated in the U.S.
- Income: There is a 20 point difference in vaccination scores between high and low income households. High Income (over $80k) households are more likely to be vaccinated than other income brackets, with a score of 106. Low Income (under $40k) households are 15% less likely to be vaccinated, compared to the average consumer.
- Activity Level & Eating Habits: Consumers who are not active and not concerned with healthy eating are significantly less likely to be vaccinated. Consumers who claim Very Active lifestyles have the highest vaccination score (110), compared to those who identify as Not at All Active (53). Those who say they are Not at All Concerned with healthy eating are 49% less likely to be vaccinated.
- Sports Fandom: Professional sports fans are much more likely to be vaccinated than the average shopper. Fans of Golf (122), Major League Baseball (119), National Hockey League (117), College Basketball (116), and International Soccer (115) have the highest vaccination scores among sports fans – but all pro sports fans outperform on vaccination scores with the exception of Combat Sports (93).
Professional Sports with Highest Percentage of Vaccinated Fans
| Professional Sports Fan | Rank | % of Fans Vaccinated | Vaccination Score |
| Golf | 1 | 64.1% | 122 |
| MLB | 2 | 62.3% | 119 |
| NHL | 3 | 61.7% | 117 |
| College Basketball | 4 | 61.1% | 116 |
| International Soccer | 5 | 60.7% | 115 |
| College Football | 6 | 60.3% | 115 |
| NFL | 7 | 60.2% | 114 |
| NBA | 8 | 60.1% | 114 |
| MLS | 9 | 58.5% | 111 |
| Auto Racing | 10 | 58.1% | 110 |
| Combat Sports | 11 | 49.1% | 93 |
Grocery Brands:
- National brands with the highest Shopper Vaccination Scores are Fage (a score of 119, i.e., Fage buyers are 19% more likely to be vaccinated than the average buyer), Green Mountain Coffee (118), Rao’s Homemade (116), Beyond Meat (116), and Dietz & Watson (116).
- Six of the top 10 are headquartered in New England / Mid-Atlantic where consumers have higher vaccination rates.
- Non-meat alternatives were two of only three protein brands in the top 25 (Beyond Meat, Morningstar Farms).
- For Private Label grocery brands, Trader Joe’s led with three brands in the top 10, followed by Whole Foods and Wegmans with two each in the top 10
- The top 5 include Charles Shaw/Trader Joe’s (128 Vaccinated Shopper Score), Trader Ming’s/Trader Joe’s (124), Food You Feel Good About/Wegmans (123), Whole Foods Market (122), and Hannaford (120).
- Retailers with higher Vaccinated Shopper Scores (see below) tend to have more private label brands in the Top 10 (Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, Whole Foods, etc). Noticeable exceptions are private label brands from Safeway, Hannaford, and ShopRite, where the retailer itself did not make the top 10 list.
Health & Beauty Brands:
- For national brands, Bausch + Lomb leads with a Shopper Vaccination Score of 112, followed by Nature Made – Healthcare (112), Poise (112), Nature’s Bounty (111), and Coppertone (109).
- Skincare brands more likely to engage with vaccinated shoppers include CeraVe (109) Neutrogena (108), and Olay (105).
- Amazon private label brands claim two of the top 10 slots (Basic Care with a score of 114 and Solimo with 112).
Retailers:
- Food-Mass-Drug-Club-Dollar Retail:
- Korean-American retailer H Mart’s buyers are the most likely to be vaccinated at 20% more likely than the average shopper with Wegmans’ buyers in second place at 18% more likely to be vaccinated.
- Both The Fresh Market and Trader Joe’s buyers are 17% more likely, and Whole Foods buyers are 15% more likely to be vaccinated.
- Club stores account for two of the top 10 retailers, BJ’s Wholesale (112) and Costco (110).
- Gas & Convenience Retail:
- Two of the top five are travel and airport stores, including Hudson Group (123) and Paradies Airport Shops (116).
- East Coast chains like Royal Farms (124), Cumberland Farms (116) and Giant Eagle (111) are more likely to have higher Vaccinated Shopper Scores (where a higher percentage of the total population is vaccinated).
Fast Food Restaurants:
- Boston Market leads vaccinated buyer rates with a 113 score, followed by Panera Bread, Habit Burger Grill, Jason’s Deli, and Jersey Mike’s Subs (all with scores of 113).
- Fast Casual restaurants (e.g. Boston Market, Noodles & Company, etc) are more likely to have high Vaccinated Shopper Scores than national fast food chains, which have wider customer bases and greater distribution in rural America.
- Burger and sandwich restaurants, from Habit Burger Grill, Culver’s, Five Guys, Jimmy Johns, and Mcalister’s Deli, over-index with vaccinated consumers.
Top 10 Brands with Highest Percentage of Vaccinated Buyers, by Sector
Note: Percentages rounded to nearest tenth.
The full report includes the expanded list of rankings, covering the top 25 brands in Grocery (national and private label brands), and the top 15 brands in Health & Beauty (national and private label brands); Retailers (FMD, Dollar, Club), Gas & Convenience stores, and Fast Food restaurants.
Methodology: The Vaccinated Shopper Score is calculated by dividing the percentage of a brand’s buyers who identify as vaccinated by the overall percentage of all buyers who identify as vaccinated (52.6%), shown as an index. Brands must exceed household penetration thresholds to be included in this analysis: national brands (>7%), private label brands (>1%), and FMD retailers, convenience stores, and restaurants (>3%).
About Numerator
Numerator is a data and tech company bringing speed and scale to market research. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, Numerator has more than 2,400 employees worldwide. The company blends proprietary data with advanced technology to create unique insights for the market research industry that has been slow to change. The majority of Fortune 100 companies are Numerator clients.
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