Latino Americans - Demographics

Demographics

See also: Demographics of the United States and Racial and ethnic demographics of the United States

Population by national origin (2010 US Census)
(self-identified ethnicity, rather than birthplace)

Hispanic Group	Population	%
Mexican	31,798,258	63.0
Puerto Rican	4,623,716	9.2
Cuban	1,785,547	3.5
Salvadoran	1,648,968	3.3
Dominican	1,414,703	2.8
Guatemalan	1,044,209	2.1
Colombian	908,734	1.8
Spaniard	635,253	1.3
Honduran	633,401	1.3
Ecuadorian	564,631	1.1
Peruvian	531,358	1.1
Nicaraguan	348,202	0.7
Argentine	224,952	0.4
Venezuelan	215,023	0.4
Panamanian	165,456	0.3
Chilean	126,810	0.3
Costa Rican	126,418	0.3
Bolivian	99,210	0.2
Uruguayan	56,884	0.1
Paraguayan	20,023	-
All other	3,505,838	6.9
Total	50,477,594	100

As of 2011, Hispanics accounted for 16.7% of the national population, or around 52 million people. The Hispanic growth rate over the April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 period was 28.7% — about four times the rate of the nation's total population (at 7.2%). The growth rate from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2006 alone was 3.4% — about three and a half times the rate of the nation's total population (at 1.0%). The projected Hispanic population of the United States for July 1, 2050 is 132.8 million people, or 30.2% of the nation's total projected population on that date.

Of the nation's total Hispanic or Latino population, 49% (21.5 million) lives in California or Texas. Not counting Puerto Rico — which is a Commonwealth of the United States — New Mexico is the state with the highest ratio of Hispanics, 44.7%. Next are California and Texas, with 35.9% and 35.6%, respectively.

The overwhelming majority of Mexican Americans are concentrated in the Southwest and the West Coast/West, primarily in California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah. The majority of the Hispanic population in the Southeast and Great Plains (Plains States), concentrated in Florida, are of Cuban origin; However, the Mexican, Dominican and Puerto Rican populations have risen significantly in this region since the mid-1990s. The Hispanic population in the Northeast, concentrated in New York, New Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania, is composed mostly of Hispanics of Dominican and Puerto Rican origin. The remainder of Hispanics and Latinos may be found throughout the country, though South Americans tend to concentrate on the East Coast and Central Americans on the West Coast. Nevertheless, since the 1990s, several cities on the East Coast have seen often impressive increases in their Mexican population, namely Miami and Philadelphia.

The Hispanic population of Los Angeles County, California, numbering 4.7 million, is the largest of any county in the nation, comprising 47 percent of the county's ten million residents.

As of 2000, the ten most populous places with Hispanic majorities were East Los Angeles (97% Hispanic), Laredo, Texas (94%), Brownsville, Texas (91%) Hialeah, Florida (90%), McAllen, Texas (80%), El Paso, Texas (77%), Santa Ana, California (76%), El Monte, California (72%) Oxnard, California (66%), and Miami (66%).

Some 64% of the nation's Hispanic population are of Mexican origin (see table). Another 9% are of Puerto Rican origin, with about 3% each of Cuban, Salvadoran and Dominican origins. The remainder are of other Central American or South American origin, or of origin directly from Spain. About 7% are of unspecified national origins. It should be noted that these figures pertain to ethnic self-identification; the same dataset (abstracted from the 2007 American Community Survey) indicates that 60.2% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans were born in the United States.

There are few recent immigrants directly from Spain. In the 2000 Census, 299,948 Americans, of whom 83% were native-born, specifically reported their ancestry as Spaniard.

In northern New Mexico and southern Colorado live peoples who trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers of the late 16th century through the 17th century. People from this background often self-identify as "Hispanos", "Spanish", or "Hispanic". Many of these settlers also intermarried with local Amerindians, creating a Mestizo population. Likewise, southern Louisiana is home to communities of people of Canary Islands descent, known as Isleños, in addition to other people of Spanish ancestry.

Hispanics are almost uniformly Christian, with Catholicism the majority confession and an increasing Protestant community.