U.S. Latinos Reach Record-High 18.5% of Nation’s Population

The median size of the Latino population for counties in 2019 was 1,133 people, according to the new Census Bureau data.

Here are some other key facts:

• Los Angeles County had the largest Latino population (4.9 million) in 2019.
• “The next largest Hispanic populations were in Harris County, Texas (2.1 million), and Miami-Dade County, Florida (1.9 million). Overall, 11 counties had more than a million Hispanics in 2019. These included Maricopa County, Arizona; Cook County, Illinois; and Riverside County, California. In 104 U.S. counties, Hispanics made up at least 50% of the population in 2019,” according to the Pew Research Center.
• Arizona’s Maricopa County had the largest growth (2.5% or 34,358) among this population between 2018 and 2019.
• Of counties with 20,000 or more people in 2019, the Hispanic population had the fastest growth from 2018 to 2019 in Kaufman County, Texas, increasing by 10.8% (3,093). Since 2010, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, had the fastest growth, increasing by 103.5% (22,250).
• The Latino population is growing fastest in the U.S. South.

“[The Latino population in the South] increased by 26% from 2010 to 2019, rising from 18.3 million to 23.1 million,” according to the Pew Research Center. “States in the Northeast (18% increase), Midwest (18%) and West (14%) also experienced growth in the number of Latinos from 2010 to 2019.”

Why Is the Health of U.S. Latinos Important?

The rise of the Latino population across the United States makes it imperative to address health gaps in this population. Otherwise, the future health of the nation would be compromised.

And the health gaps are quite large.

Latinos struggle with:

• healthy food access
• safe places for physical activity
• housing and transit
• social support
• mental health issues and childhood trauma
• healthy school environments
• toxin and pollution exposure

And, most recently, the novel coronavirus COVID-19 is worsening these very health inequities. This includes higher case and death rates for Latinos.

“Latino and African-American residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors, according to the new data, which provides detailed characteristics of 640,000 infections detected in nearly 1,000 U.S. counties,” The New York Times reported in July 2020. “And Black and Latino people have been nearly twice as likely to die from the virus as white people, the data shows.”

What Can We Do to Improve U.S. Latinos’ Health?

We can all do our part to promote community health equity.

Start with a customized Salud America! Health Equity Report Card to see how your area stacks up in housing, transit, poverty, health care, and other health equity issues compared to the rest of your state and nation.

You can then email your Health Equity Report Card to decision-makers, share it on social media, and use it to make a case for community change to boost health equity for the long-term.

Then you can take some targeted actions:

• Download the Salud America! “Handle With Care Action Pack” to start a Handle With Care program. In the program, police notify schools when they encounter children at a traumatic scene, so schools can provide support.
• Download the free Salud America! “Get Your City to Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis Action Pack“! The Action Pack will help you gain feedback from local social justice groups and advocates of color. It will also help you start a conversation with city leaders for a resolution to declare racism a public health issue along with a commitment to take action to change policies and practices. It will also help build local support.

GET THE ACTION PACK!