The growth of the U.S. Latino population — once the nation’s fastest growing — slowed considerably over the past seven years and slipped behind that of Asian Americans amid declining Hispanic immigration and birth rates, a study released Thursday Sept. 8 found.
The AP reported the Pew Research Center study, which analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data, found that the U.S. Hispanic population grew annually on average by 2.8 percent between 2007 and 2014.
That’s down from the 4.4 percent annual growth from 2000 to 2007, before the Great Recession.
William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, said the slower growth is largely a factor of the economy. A slower economy is influencing families to hold off on having more children, and it’s discouraging migration amid stronger border enforcement, he said.
Kenneth M. Johnson, a senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire’s Carsey School of Public Policy, said U.S. Hispanic women between the ages of 20 to 24 have seen a 36 percent decline in birth rates.
“That’s by far the largest decline of any other group,” Johnson said.
Despite slowing population growth, Latinos still accounted for 54 percent of the nation’s population growth between 2000 and 2014, according to the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
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Source: bigstory.ap.org