Is the Growth of the U.S. Latino Population Slowing Down?

Share On Social!

Latinos are no longer the fastest-growing population in United States.

The growth and dispersion of the Latino population has slowed since 2007, when the Great Recession started, immigration from Latin America cooled and Latino fertility rates began to fall, according to a new report by Pew Research Center.

The U.S. Latino population still grew annually by 2.8% on average from 2007-2014, but that is much slower than its 4.4% growth rate from 2000-2007 and 5.8% in the 1990s.

Asians now are the fastest rising U.S. population, with a 3.4% growth rate since 2007.

Latino population dispersion, while still evident, also is slowing.

For example, the share of U.S. counties with at least 1,000 Hispanics grew 8 percentage points from 38% to 46% from 2000-2007, but just 4 percentage points from 46% to 50% from 2007-2014.

What does this mean, then and now?

“Rapid population growth and geographic dispersion have led to a number of Latino-driven demographic changes nationwide since 1990. As of 2012, 17 states had kindergarten student populations that were at least 20% Latino, up from just eight states in 2000. And the growing and dispersing Latino population has led to rising electoral influence of Latino voters in recent elections as the number eligible to vote has grown in many battleground states,” according to the new report. “Yet the slowdown in Latino population growth and dispersion may slow these trends as well in the coming years.”