How the U.S. Hispanic population is changing
The U.S. Latino population, the principal driver of U.S. demographic growth since 2000, has itself evolved during this time.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
The U.S. Latino population, the principal driver of U.S. demographic growth since 2000, has itself evolved during this time.
About a million immigrants receive U.S. green cards each year, but fewer than half are new arrivals from other countries. The majority already live in the United States on temporary visas.
One-quarter of all U.S. Latinos self-identify as Afro-Latino, Afro-Caribbean or of African descent with roots in Latin America.
The immigrant population in Texas has grown rapidly in recent decades, reaching 4.5 million in 2014. That puts Texas in a tie with New York for the second largest state immigrant population by size.
When asked if they identify as “mestizo,” “mulatto” or some other mixed-race combination, one-third of U.S. Hispanics say they do.
Differences exist among Hispanics’ religious affiliation when they are looked at by their country of origin: Mexicans and Dominicans are more likely than most other Hispanic origin groups to say they are Catholic.
Latinos are not the only group of Americans who utilize the “some other race” category on the census form—but they are the most likely to do so. In 2010, 6.2% of Americans selected “some other race,” up from 5.5% in 2000. Among all those who answered the race question this way in 2010, 96.8% were Hispanic.
Which do you prefer? It’s a question Hispanics and non-Hispanics alike have struggled with…except in Texas.
For more than 40 years, one rock solid element of Hispanic demographics has been the ranking of the three largest Hispanic origin groups: Mexicans have always been the largest by population; followed by Puerto Ricans and then Cubans.
But this may be changing.
Five demographic profiles of Hispanic populations in the U.S. by country of origin — Guatemalan, Colombian, Honduran, Ecuadorian and Peruvian — have been added to the profiles of the five largest Hispanic populations — Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, and Dominican — posted earlier in the year by the Pew Hispanic Center.
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