While improving economies may prompt consumers to return to restaurants or take a vacation, one trend that looks likely to remain—and perhaps even grow—is the shift to private label goods.

New Orleans population is growing following the disaster, but the demographic makeup of its neighborhoods and new residents reveals how the city has changed.

In its analysis of more than 60,000 mobile phone bills in the U.S., Nielsen details the most talkative (and most “textative”) Americans by gender, age, region and ethnicity.

Nielsen and the Chinese Economic Monitoring & Analysis Center surveyed shoppers across China and found consumer confidence slowing among those in cities, but steadily increasing among consumers in rural villages.

Following the positive trends exhibited in the first quarter of 2010, Europe’s second quarter was a disappointment according to the latest Nielsen European Growth Reporter.

In many developing markets, inexpensive and available mobile phones serve as a substitute pathway to the Internet. Rapid mobile phone adoption presents “reverse innovation” opportunities for clever marketers who leverage the trend.

Amid seemingly contradictory economic datapoints, manufacturers and retailers will need to focus on the habits of the consumer for clarity and insights into the pace of recovery.

Video consumption across multiple platforms is now a global phenomenon. Consumers in all regions are proving their insatiable appetite for video information and entertainment – thus far adding screens to their media mix, not replacing them.

Widespread ownership of mobiles is only a fairly recent development in China, but consumers there have fully embraced the technology and in some ways are using it more robustly than their American and European counterparts.

Nielsen’s research reveals that there is a clear progression in the preference for an iPhone among likely smartphone upgraders the more they have been exposed to the iOS.