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El Noticiero de IUPLR
The Electronic Monthly Newsletter for the IUPLR network of member centers,
associates, researchers and scholars.
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September 2001
Volume 7, No.10
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September 7, 2001
Dear Reader,
The latest data set now available from the 2000 Census Summary File 1
(SF 1) concerns the size of the major subgroups that comprise the Latino
population (i.e., Mexicans, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and all
other Latinos). You can look up geographically specific figures by accessing
the Census Bureau website www.census.gov
and then clicking on the homepage link titled Detailed Table (SF1). What
we have done this month is merged state-specific data for 1990 and 2000
to summarize the size and distribution of the subgroups across time; plus
we have identified the states that have the highest concentration for
each of the major subgroups in 2000. Four pie charts and seven tables
represent our initial findings. The two pie charts illustrate the major
countries of origin for the Latino population in 1990 and 2000, respectively.
The first table displays the 10-year population shifts associated with
the different countries of origin for the whole US Latino population.
The second table shows the 10 states with the biggest total Hispanic population
in 2000, broken down by countries of origin. Tables 3-1 through 3-4 display
population changes from 1990 to 2000 by state for each of the major subgroups.
The last table and two charts indicate the distribution of racial categories
that Latinos selected to self-identify themselves in 1990 and 2000. (See
www.nd.edu/~iuplr/cic/index.html)
To start, the findings reveal more precisely how the Latino population
has grown in total numbers and also how it has become more intra-ethnically
diverse. Remember that the Latino population grew by 58 percent between
1990 and 2000. Among the first four major ethnic groups, the Mexican population
increased by 53 percent, much more than the other groups. The rate of
increase is somewhat unusual because larger sub-population segments have
historically experienced slower relative growth than less dominant groups.
The Puerto Rican and Cuban populations grew by 25 percent and 19 percent
respectively. In 2000, Mexicans were still the largest Hispanic group,
representing 58.5 percent of the 35 million Latinos in the U.S. Puerto
Ricans were the second largest group, at about 9.6 percent; and Cubans
made up about 3.5 percent. Dominicans were 2.2 percent of the Latino population.
It is notable too that the proportion of the total Latino population occupied
by each of the four largest groups decreased from 1990 to 2000. This means
that the Latino population was more intra-ethnically diverse in 2000 than
in 1990.
Perhaps the key finding
regarding population growth is that those Latinos that make up the “Other
Hispanic or Latino” categories doubled in size between 1990 and 2000.
Are different Latino
subgroup residents more concentrated in different states? Table two deals
with this issue. Mexicans tend to live in California, Texas, Illinois,
Arizona, and Colorado. Puerto Ricans are mostly concentrated in New York,
Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. The largest Cuban
groups live in Florida, New Jersey, California and New York. California
also attracts the biggest groups of Costa Ricans, Guatemalans, Salvadorans,
Chileans and Peruvians. Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Colombians, and Venezuelans
like Florida. The largest populations of Dominicans, Panamanians, Ecuadorians,
and Paraguayans are concentrated in New York. Bolivians have their biggest
concentration in Virginia.
As far as the changing proportions of Latinos from different countries
are concerned, there are twenty-seven states in which the Mexican population
more than doubled between 1990 and 2000. This happened for Puerto Ricans,
Cubans, and Dominicans in twelve, eleven, and twenty-one states, respectively.
As might have been expected, the Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban populations
doubled in states that had had only small populations from each country
in 1990. This was true for Mexicans in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee,
South Carolina, Alabama, and Delaware; for Puerto Ricans in Idaho, Vermont,
and Montana; and for Cubans in Kentucky, New Mexico, Mississippi, Utah,
Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming. However, the
states that the Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban populations were concentrated
in 1990 experienced slower growth among these ethnic groups, or even a
decrease, such as New York for Puerto Ricans, and New Jersey and New York
for Cubans. This tendency did not hold true for the Dominican population
that underwent a drastic increase in New Jersey and Florida, states where,
next to New York, the Dominican population had been most heavily concentrated
in 1990.
Finally, our findings
about race reveal that the 96 percent of Latinos identify themselves as
either white or other (i.e., not white, black, Asian, Pacific Islander,
American Indian or Alaskan). The split between the white and other category
was nearly equal. Interestingly, just 6 percent of the Latino population
identified themselves as being of two or more races. The norm for the
nation was 2.3 percent. The front page of a recent Wall Street Journal
(August 30, 2001 http://interactive.wsj.com/fr/emailthis/retrieve.cgi?id=SB99911754880615500.djm)
describes and discusses the methods of how the final tabulations on race
are determined. Another view of the topic can be glean from a piece entitled
“The Methodology and Mythology of The Census,” written by Patrisia
Gonzales and Roberto Rodriguez ( http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/0814/p2s1-ussc.html)
Sincerely,
Philip Garcia
Associate Director
Institute for Latino Studies
University of Notre Dame
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