---
title: "Key facts about how the U.S. Hispanic population is changing"
description: "The U.S. Hispanic population reached 57 million in 2015, but a drop-off in immigration from Latin America and a declining birth rate among Hispanic women has curbed overall growth of the population and slowed the dispersion of Hispanics through the U.S."
date: "2016-09-08"
authors:
  - name: "Jens Manuel Krogstad"
    job_title: "Former Senior Writer and Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/jens-manuel-krogstad/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/09/08/key-facts-about-how-the-u-s-hispanic-population-is-changing/"
categories:
  - "Economic Conditions"
  - "Hispanic/Latino Demographics"
  - "Immigration & Migration"
  - "Recessions & Recoveries"
---

# Key facts about how the U.S. Hispanic population is changing

[![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2016/09/PH_2016.09.08_Geography-03.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2016/09/08/latino-population-growth-and-dispersion-has-slowed-since-the-onset-of-the-great-recession)

The U.S. Hispanic population [reached 57 million in 2015](http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2016/cb16-107.html), but a drop-off in immigration from Latin America and a [declining birth rate](https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2012/11/29/u-s-birth-rate-falls-to-a-record-low-decline-is-greatest-among-immigrants/) among Hispanic women has curbed overall growth of the population and slowed the dispersion of Hispanics through the U.S.

[![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2016/09/PH_2016.09.08_Geography-01.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2016/09/08/latino-population-growth-and-dispersion-has-slowed-since-the-onset-of-the-great-recession)

From the onset of the Great Recession in 2007 through 2014, the U.S. Hispanic population had an annual average growth rate of 2.8%, compared with an average 4.4% growth each year from 2000 to 2007. As a result, in terms of growth rate, Hispanics – once the nation’s fastest-growing population – have now slipped behind Asians, whose population grew at an average annual rate of 3.4% between 2007 and 2014.

Here are key takeaways [from our new report](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2016/09/08/latino-population-growth-and-dispersion-has-slowed-since-the-onset-of-the-great-recession) on the geography of the U.S. Hispanic population, which includes fact sheets and interactive [county](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/hispanic-population-by-county/), [metropolitan ](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/hispanic-population-in-select-u-s-metropolitan-areas/)and [state ](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/states/)maps. (Data on Hispanic eligible voters are available in our [state](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/mapping-the-latino-electorate-by-state/) and [congressional district](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/mapping-the-latino-electorate-by-congressional-district/) interactives and [fact sheets](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/fact-sheets/2016-state-election-fact-sheets/).)

**Despite slowing growth rates**, **Latinos still accounted for more than half (54%) of total U.S. population growth from 2000 to 2014.** Hispanics drove at least half of overall population growth in 524 counties that had at least 1,000 Latinos in 2014. In these counties, Hispanic population growth accounted for 54% or more of total growth. The South accounted for 46% of these counties, compared with 24% in the West, 18% in the Midwest and 12% in the Northeast.

**The dispersion of the Latino population across the U.S. has slowed since the onset of the Great Recession. **In 2014, half of the nation’s counties had at least 1,000 Hispanics, a 4-percentage-point increase from 2007. But dispersion was more widespread from 2000 to 2007, when this share increased from 38% to 46% of all U.S. counties – an 8-percentage-point increase.

****

[![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2016/09/PH_2016.09.08_Geography-05.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/hispanic-population-by-county/)

In recent years, the fastest Latino population growth has tended to come in areas with a relatively small number of Latinos. [Three counties in North Dakota](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/hispanic-population-by-county/) had the fastest growth in Latino population from 2007 to 2014. During this time, North Dakota [added thousands of workers](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/07/16/how-north-dakotas-man-rush-compares-with-past-population-booms/) thanks to a boom in Bakken shale oil production. This Hispanic population surge may be a shift away from the South, which had eight of the 10 fastest-growing Hispanic county populations from 2000 to 2007. Even so, the South remains the largest source of growth, accounting for 43% of U.S. Hispanic population growth from 2007 to 2014.

**The Hispanic population is not growing in every county of the United States**. The Latino population declined in 38 counties with at least 1,000 Latinos in 2014, and most of these declines were in Texas, Colorado and New Mexico – states that have large and well-established Latino populations. Many of these counties are located in non-metropolitan areas. For example, in Texas, Culberson County’s Latino population declined from 2007 to 2014 by 15% to 1,665, the largest drop in the nation. Saguache County in Colorado had the second-fastest decline in its Latino population during this period, dropping by 14% to 2,370.

[![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2016/09/PH_2016.09.08_Geography-23.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/mapping-the-latino-electorate-by-state/)

**California continues to have the nation’s largest Latino population among states, but Texas has grown faster. **In 2014, [15 million Hispanics lived in California](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/states/), a 37% increase from the 10.9 million Hispanics in 2000. Texas saw even quicker growth, with its Hispanic population increasing 56%, from 6.7 million in 2000 to 10.4 million in 2014.

**More than half (53%) of the nation’s Hispanics lived in 15 metropolitan areas in 2014.** Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim topped the list with 6 million Hispanics in 2014, a majority of whom are U.S. born, as is the case in most of these [metro areas](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/interactives/hispanic-population-in-select-u-s-metropolitan-areas/). Immigrants made up the majority in two of the top 15: In Florida’s Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, 61% of 2.6 million Hispanics were foreign born in 2014, while in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria (which includes the District of Columbia and parts of Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia), 53% of 900,000 Hispanics are foreign born.