Hispanics' numbers in US rise ever higher
Group accounts for one-fourth of children 5, under
WASHINGTON - Hispanics, the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group, now account for about one in four children younger than 5 in the United States, according to US Census Bureau estimates released today.
The increase from nearly one in five in 2000 has broad implications for governments, communities, and schools nationwide, suggesting that the meteoric rise in the Hispanic population that demographers forecast for midcentury will occur even sooner among younger generations.
"Hispanics have both a larger proportion of people in their child-bearing years and tend to have slightly more children," said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center and coauthor of a recent study predicting the Latino population will double from 15 percent today to 30 percent by 2050.
"So this means that in five years, a quarter of the 5- to 9-year-olds will be Hispanic, and in 10 years a quarter of the 10- to 14-year-olds will be Hispanic. It's just going to move up through the age distribution with each successive cohort being slightly more Hispanic," Passel said.
Hispanics account for more than half the children younger than 5 in New Mexico and California, where their share of the overall state population is 44 percent and 36 percent, respectively. In Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado, about one-third or more of children under 5 are Hispanic.
The figures are less dramatic but still notable in Virginia and Maryland. In both states, Hispanics account for 11 percent of children under 5. In Virginia, they are 7 percent of the overall population; in Maryland, 6 percent.
The census figures showed a slight drop in immigration to the United States by Hispanics from July 1, 2006, to July 1, 2007, compared with the previous 12-month period. That suggests the US economic slowdown might have had some impact on immigration. For nearly a decade, US births have accounted for a far greater share of the growth in the Hispanic population than immigration.
Nonetheless, many researchers warn that the higher-than-average poverty rate of US-born Latino children and the fact that many are raised by immigrant parents pose particular challenges to their education and integration.
The rise in the Latino population has been accompanied by significant, if slower, growth among African-Americans and Asians. Minorities account for one-third of the US population.
