U.S. Hispanic population booms with birth rate

HAYA EL NASSER

Published: 06.30.2008

Births, not immigration, now account for most of the growth in the nation's Hispanic population, a distinct reversal of trends of the past 30 years.

The Hispanic baby boom is transforming the demographics of small-town America in a dramatic way. Some rural counties where the population had been shrinking and aging are growing because of Hispanic immigration and births and now must provide services for the young.

"In all of the uproar over immigration, this is getting missed," said Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. "All the focus is on immigration. At some point, it's not. It's natural increase."

This natural increase - more births than deaths - is accelerating among Hispanics here because they are younger than the U.S. population as a whole. Their median age is 27.4 compared with 37.9 overall, 40.8 for whites, 35.4 for Asians and 31.1 for blacks.

Because they are younger and likely to have more children, Hispanics are having an impact that far outlasts their initial entry into the country. From 2000 to 2007, the Hispanic population grew by 10.2 million - 58.6 percent from natural increase. The total U.S. population grew 20.2 million, about 60 percent from natural increase, in that period. In some established immigrant gateways such as Los Angeles and Chicago, all the Hispanic growth comes from natural increase, according to Johnson's research of data from the National Center for Health Statistics