The following page includes some data on the U.S. Hispanic population. The data will be updated periodically. Please send us an email telling us what information you would find useful.
There have been many stories in the media discussing the nation's growing Hispanic population. As of July 1, 1998, the Census Bureau estimates there are 30.4 million Hispanics in the United States mainland. There are an additional 3.8 million Hispanics in Puerto Rico. This brings the total to an estimated 34.2 million Hispanics.
With 10.5 million children, Hispanic children are the largest child minority group, outnumbering African-American children by 35,000 (Bureau of the Census 1998). The increasing numbers of Latino children has some important implications with respect to education.
Hispanics are not a homogeneous group; the label includes: Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Salvadorans, Dominicans, Cubans and South and Central Americans. Mexican-Americans comprise 63% of the Hispanic population (Bureau of the Census 1998). Much of the data available from the Census and the National Center for Education Statistics aggregates data for all the different subgroups which obscures significant differences in educational attainment within the Hispanic sub groups.
The 1990 Census reported 49.8% of the Hispanic population age 25 was a high school graduate or higher and 9.2% had a Bachelor's degree or higher. The educational attainment for the different Hispanic subgroups is listed below:
|
Group |
HS graduate or higher |
BA or higher |
|
Hispanic |
49.8% |
9.2% |
|
Mexican |
44.2% |
6.2% |
|
Puerto Rican |
53.4% |
9.5% |
|
Cuban |
56.8% |
16.6% |
|
Dominican |
42.6% |
7.8% |
|
Central American |
45.6% |
9.0% |
|
South American |
70.7% |
19.5% |
|
Spaniard |
76.7% |
20.5% |
Source: Bureau of the Census, We the American Hispanics September, 1993.
In 1998 the Census Bureau reported 55.7% of Hispanic men and 55.3% of Hispanic women age 25 and over had completed a high school diploma or higher while 11.1% of the men and 10.9% of the women had completed a Bachelor's degree or higher.
The figures were 83.6 % of the non-Hispanic White males and 83.8% of the female population aged 25 and over having completed high school or higher and 27.3% of the men and 22.8% of the women holding a Bachelor's degree or higher (Bureau of the Census 1998).
The Census Bureau reported nationwide 35.6 million or 13.3% of the US population lives in poverty. The poverty threshold for a family of four was $16,400 in annual income in 1997 ($12,802 for a family of three).
Hispanics as a group have one of the highest poverty rates in the country. The Census Bureau reported 8.3 million or 27.1% of Hispanics lived in poverty in 1997. The rate for other groups were: 26.5% for African Americans, 11% for Whites and 14% for Asians and Pacific Islanders.
In a recent report by the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University, Resegregation in American Schools, Orfield and Yun found "Latino segregation has grown steadily throughout the past 28 years, surpassing the Black level in predominately non-White schools." The authors illustrate this point in Table 9 of their report.
Percentage of US Black and Latino Students in Predominately Minority and 90-100% Minority Schools, 1968-96
| 50-100% Minority |
90-100% Minority |
|||
| Years | Black | Latino | Black | Latino |
| '68-'69 | 76.6 |
54.8 |
64.3 |
23.1 |
| '72-'73 | 63.6 | 56.6 | 38.7 | 23.3 |
| '80-'81 | 62.9 | 68.1 | 33.2 | 28.8 |
| '86-'87 | 63.3 | 71.5 | 32.5 | 32.2 |
| '91-'92 | 66.0 | 73.4 | 33.9 | 34.0 |
| '96-'97 | 68.8 | 74.8 | 35.0 | 35.4 |