Hispanic pop. grows faster than predicted
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, February 17, 2002
The number of Hispanics in the United States is greater than the entire population of Canada. Census figures show that between 1990 and 2000, the number of Hispanic people soared to 35.3 million — one out of eight people in the United States — from the 22.4 million recorded in 1990.
Demographers have been expecting this surge in Hispanic Americans. If there was a surprise, it was in how fast it has happened. The most recent population projections predicted that Hispanics would overtake African Americans as our largest minority population in 2005. The 2000 Census figures show that it has already happened.
Immigration has played a large role in the growing number of Hispanics. Census figures indicate that 39% of Hispanics entered the United States in the 1990s and another 28% came in the '80s.
Research by People en Español, a leading Spanish-language publication, indicates 23% of Hispanics have at least one parent who was foreign-born while only 20% have both parents born in America. In addition to the surge of immigrants from Mexico and Latin America, higher birth rates have contributed to the rapid increase in the Hispanic population. Many of the Hispanic immigrants in the '90s are in the age brackets that form families and have children.
High immigration and birth rates also mean that the nation's Hispanics are a relatively youthful group. The median age was 25.9 compared with 35.3 for the United States as a whole, according to the 2000 Census. The median age for Mexican descendants was 24.2 years, the lowest for all Hispanic groups. The highest was for people of Cuban origin at 40.7 years, a reflection of their older, established community in South Florida, lower birth and fertility rates and a U.S. policy shift that has slowed immigration from Cuba.
While the Hispanic American population is still concentrated mostly in the West and Southwest, with large groups in major metro areas such as New York, Chicago and Miami, the 1990s saw a spread of Hispanics to smaller cities and even rural areas in the Midwest, South and Northeast.
New immigrants from Mexico and Central America have moved to states such as North Carolina, Georgia and Iowa where the Hispanic population was almost nonexistent a decade ago. Of the seven states that saw their Hispanic population more than triple between 1990 and 2000, only Nevada was not located in the South.
Hispanics are not a homogeneous group. The term does not designate race, but rather, Spanish-speaking ancestry. Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban Hispanics are probably the best known, but they are by no means the only Hispanic groups in this country.
Despite real differences between Hispanic subgroups, there are similarities, too. In its report on America's Demography for the New Century, the The Milken Institute's identifies similarities among America's Hispanics population. In general, Hispanics are younger, have more children, experience greater family stability, have Roman Catholic roots and have dominant father figure.
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| City | Change in population 1990-2000 Total | Hispanic | Hispanic share of city population 1990 | 2000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charlotte, N.C. | 36.6% | 614.4% | 1.4% | 7.4% |
| Raleigh, N.C. | 32.8 | 556.7 | 1.4 | 7.0 |
| Nashville-Davidson, Tenn. | 11.7 | 456.4 | 0.9 | 4.7 |
| Greensboro, N.C. | 22.0 | 452.0 | 1.0 | 4.4 |
| Memphis, Tenn. | 6.5 | 333.6 | 0.7 | 3.0 |
| Indianapolis | 6.9 | 298.9 | 1.1 | 3.9 |
| Aurora, Colo. | 24.4 | 270.8 | 6.6 | 19.8 |
| Minneapolis | 3.9 | 269.3 | 2.1 | 7.6 |
| Little Rock, Ark. | 4.2 | 265.7 | 0.8 | 2.7 |
| Birmingham, Ala. | -8.7 | 262.6 | 0.4 | 1.6 |
| Las Vegas | 85.2 | 249.0 | 12.5 | 23.6 |
| Lexington-Fayette, Ky. | 15.6 | 234.9 | 1.1 | 3.3 |
| Tulsa, Okla. | 7.0 | 193.9 | 2.6 | 7.2 |
| Omaha, Neb. | 16.1 | 185.7 | 3.1 | 7.5 |
| Des Moines, Iowa | 2.8 | 183.8 | 2.4 | 6.6 |
| Grand Rapids, Mich. | 4.6 | 174.8 | 5.0 | 13.1 |
| Louisville, Ky. | -4.8 | 170.8 | 0.7 | 1.9 |
| Richmond, Va. | -2.6 | 167.3 | 0.9 | 2.6 |
| Garland, Texas | 19.4 | 162.6 | 11.6 | 25.6 |
| Arlington, Texas | 27.2 | 160.9 | 8.9 | 18.3 |
| Portland, Ore. | 21.0 | 159.9 | 3.2 | 6.8 |
| Columbus, Ohio | 12.4 | 159.2 | 1.1 | 2.5 |
| Fort Wayne, Ind. | 18.9 | 154.0 | 2.7 | 5.8 |
| Mesa, Ariz. | 37.6 | 149.6 | 10.9 | 19.7 |
| Atlanta | 5.7 | 148.8 | 1.9 | 4.5 |
| Oklahoma City | 13.8 | 133.1 | 5.0 | 10.1 |
| Phoenix | 34.3 | 128.3 | 20.0 | 34.1 |
| Bakersfield, Calif. | 41.3 | 123.6 | 20.5 | 32.5 |
| Madison, Wis. | 8.8 | 119.6 | 2.0 | 4.1 |
| Wichita, Kan. | 13.2 | 117.1 | 5.0 | 9.6 |
| Lincoln, Neb. | 17.5 | 116.6 | 2.0 | 3.6 |
| Dallas | 18.0 | 101.0 | 20.9 | 35.6 |
| Note: 1990 population counts do not reflect subsequent changes to city boundaries or other geographic changes. | ||||
| 10% or more of the population is Hispanic in cities shown in bold. | ||||
| Source: Brookings Institution analysis based on 1990 and 2000 Census data | ||||
| Hispanics by place of origin | |
|---|---|
| Mexico | 58.5% |
| South America | 3.8 |
| Central America | 14.8 |
| Cuba | 3.5 |
| Puerto Rico | 9.6 |
| Dominican Republic | 2.2 |
| Other | 17.6 |
| Source: Bureau of the Census, 2000 Census | |
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