Hispanic Population Growth and Dispersion Slowed Since 2007

In June 2012, a Pew Research Center study indicated that "Asians have surpassed Hispanics as the largest wave of new immigrants to the United States," (also posted here). Now Pew has released a detailed study with accompanying infographics and fact sheets to gain a better understand of how the nation's largest ethnic minority has been changing since 2007.

"Between 2007 and 2014, the U.S. Hispanic population grew annually on average by 2.8% (its pace of growth has been an even slower 2.4% between 2010 and 2014)," writes the authors of the study, Renee Stepler and Mark Hugo Lopez.

Courtesy of Pew Research Center

This was down from a 4.4% growth rate between 2000 and 2007 and down from 5.8% annually in the 1990s. As a result, the Hispanic population, once the nation’s fastest growing, has now slipped behind Asians (whose population grew at an average annual rate of 3.4% from 2007 to 2014) in its growth rate. [Asians has surpassed Hispanics in 2013 as the fastest growing minority group].

As for all the campaign talk about "securing the borders," when it comes to Mexico, Pew reported last year that "from 2009 to 2014, more Mexicans and their families (including U.S.-born children) left the U.S. for Mexico...than left Mexico to come to the U.S."

The main driver of Latino population growth in the U.S. shifted from immigration in the last two decades of the last century to births in the oughts. Birth rates declined almost 27 percent from 2006 to 2014.

• Despite slowing population growth, Latinos still accounted for more than half (54%) of the nation’s population growth between 2000 and 2014.

The report also centers on geographic population dispersal, "beginning in the 1990s, just as Latino population growth was accelerating."

• The South continues to lead in Hispanic population growth, but three fastest growing counties are in North Dakota [as of 2014].
• The five states with the largest Hispanic populations are California (15 million), Texas (10.4 million), Florida (4.8 million), New York (3.7 million) and Illinois (2.2 million). Together, these states hold 65% of all Hispanics.
• See more 'key facts about how the U.S. Hispanic population is changing.'

Additional information:

• Associated Press: Study: Latino population growth slips behind Asian Americans
• Pew Research Center: Hispanic/Latino Demographics