Hispanic Births Increasing Group's Population; Some Rural Communities Significantly Affected

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 02 Jul 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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A rise in births among Hispanics, not immigration, is increasing the group's overall population, according to a study published in the June issue of Population and Development Review, USA Today reports.

For the study, researchers Kenneth Johnson, a demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute, and Daniel Lichter of Cornell University analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics. They found that from 2000 to 2007, the Hispanic population increased by 10.2 million and that 58.6% of the increase -- or 6.8 million -- was because of births. During the same seven-year period, the total U.S. population increased by 20.2 million, with about 60% of that growth the result of births. About 6.8 million Hispanics were born and 812,000 Hispanics died during the study period, according to the data. "In all of the uproar over immigration, this is getting missed," Johnson, said, adding, "All the focus is on immigration. ...At some point, it's not. It's natural increase."

The natural increase - more births than deaths - is increasing among Hispanics in the US because Hispanics on average are younger than the general population and likely to have more children, according to USA Today. The median age for Hispanics is 27.4 years old, compared with 37.9 for the general U.S. population, 40.8 for whites, 35.4 for Asian-Americans and 31.1 for blacks.

The study found that in some cities considered "established immigrant gateways," such as Los Angeles and Chicago, the entire increase in the Hispanic population comes from new births, according to USA Today. The "Hispanic baby boom is transforming the demographics of small-town America in a dramatic way," USA Today reports. Researchers found that in some rural parts of the U.S. where populations would otherwise have remained stagnant or declined, Hispanic births might be the only factor in maintaining a viable population. From 2000 to 2005, 221 counties would not have grown without an increase in the Hispanic population.

Steve Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which promotes limits on immigration, said that because more than 50% of Hispanic births are to low-income uneducated women, the increase in births poses additional challenges for communities (Nasser [1], USA Today, 6/30).

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