Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Download Mark Hugo Lopez's photo
Download High-Res Image

Mark Hugo Lopez

Director, Race and Ethnicity Research

Expertise:Global Migration and Demography, Hispanic Trends, Race and Ethnicity

Mark Hugo Lopez is director of race and ethnicity research at Pew Research Center, where he leads planning of the Center’s research agenda focused on chronicling the diverse, ever-changing racial and ethnic landscape of the United States. He is an expert on issues of racial and ethnic identity, Latino politics and culture, the U.S. Hispanic and Asian American populations, global and domestic immigration, and the U.S. demographic landscape. Lopez was previously the Center’s director of Global Migration and Demography, and of Hispanic research.

Lopez is the co-editor of “Adjusting to a World in Motion: Trends in Global Migration and Migration Policy.” He is a co-author of “The Future of the First Amendment” and has contributed chapters to several books about voting and young Latinos.

Prior to joining Pew Research Center, Lopez served as a research assistant professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy and as research director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

Lopez received his doctorate in economics from Princeton University. He is an author of reports about the Hispanic electorate, Hispanic identity and immigration. Lopez frequently appears in national and international media in both Spanish and English.

Publications

  • short reads

    Skepticism about a landmark Census finding

    The Census Bureau made big news last week when it reported that the black voter turnout rate (66.2%) exceeded the white voter turnout rate (64.1%) for the first time ever in 2012. But a closer look at the numbers raises some intriguing questions. It’s possible that the lines may have first crossed in 2008. But […]

  • short reads

    Six take-aways from the Census Bureau’s voting report

    Today’s report from the Census Bureau on the diversifying American electorate in 2012 confirms an historic turnout milestone first noted last December by the Pew Research Center, but undercuts a number of other widely-reported demographic analyses of last year’s presidential vote. Here are the six most important take-aways from Census Bureau data: 1. For the […]

  • report

    Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware

    National rates of gun homicide and other violent gun crimes are strikingly lower now than during their peak in the mid-1990s, paralleling a general decline in violent crime, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Beneath the long-term trend, though, are big differences by decade: Violence plunged through the 1990s, but has declined less dramatically since 2000.

  • report

    A Demographic Portrait of Mexican-Origin Hispanics in the United States

    Mexican-Origin Hispanics in the United States A record 33.7 million Hispanics of Mexican origin resided in the United States in 2012, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by Pew Research Center. This estimate includes 11.4 million immigrants born in Mexico and 22.3 million born in the U.S. who self-identified as Hispanics of Mexican […]

  • report

    Closing the Digital Divide: Latinos and Technology Adoption

    Overview Latinos own smartphones, go online from a mobile device and use social networking sites at similar—and sometimes higher—rates than do other groups of Americans, according to a new analysis of three surveys by the Pew Research Center. The analysis also finds that when it comes to using the internet,[1. Internet users are those who […]

  • report

    The Path Not Taken

    Overview Nearly two-thirds of the 5.4 million legal immigrants from Mexico who are eligible to become citizens of the United States have not yet taken that step. Their rate of naturalization—36%—is only half that of legal immigrants from all other countries combined, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, […]

  • report

    Latinos Express Growing Confidence In Personal Finances, Nation’s Direction

    I.  Overview Hispanics have grown more satisfied with the nation’s direction and more confident in their finances since 2011, according to a new survey from the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center. Today, half of Latinos (51%) express satisfaction with the direction of the country, a 13 percentage point increase over […]