Briefly in the news

-- Lolita Harper

After boasting a record-breaking year, officials at the Orange County

Fair have released the demographics of those who attended the popular

summer attraction.

Of the 843,347 people who cross through the turnstiles, 186 were

surveyed by Real Feedback about their ethnicity, the money they spent and

their reason for coming, among other things.

Of those who answered the question on ethnicity, 63.4% were white;

18.3% were Latino; 3.8% Asian American; 2.7% AfricanAmerican; 1.6% Native

American; 2.2% other and 8.1% declined to answer, fair officials said.

Almost half of fairgoers, 45%, were repeat customers and 13% said they

heard about the fair from friends and family. Others learned of the fair

from newspapers and television.

More than a quarter of the attendees, 29.6%, said they spent $100 to

$199 at the fair, while 25.3% spent $50 to $75, 23.7% spent $25 to $49,

10.2% spent less than $25, and 8.1% spent $76 to $99.

Couples at the fair outnumbered single people by more than 2 to 1 and

the audience was mostly on the mature end, with the largest percentage of

people older than 35.