By The opinion
Jun 27, 2024, 7:32 PM EDT
Latinos accounted for nearly 71% of overall U.S. population growthan increase that was mainly driven by the greater number of births in this community between 2022 and 2023, according to a Census report released this Thursday.
Latino births contributed significantly to the increase in the population of this community, which totaled 1.16 million in 2023, and represents the majority of the total increase (1.64 million) in the United States.
Latinos make up nearly one-fifth (19.5%) of the U.S. population, as of 2023, the second-largest group after non-Hispanic white Americans.
The Hispanic population “is expanding at a substantially faster rate than the non-Hispanic population, primarily due to natural increase, that is, more births than deaths,” said Kristie Wilder, a Census demographer.
The data revealed that the Hispanic population grew faster at 1.8% than the country’s non-Hispanic population, which increased by 0.2% (just under half a million).
The slower growth of the non-Hispanic population was due to a natural decline where it experienced 217,000 more deaths than births between 2022 and 2023, the report explained.
However, the report warns that while births were the largest contribution to Hispanic population growth between 2022 and 2023, with approximately 722,000 more than the number of deaths, Latino immigrants accounted for approximately one-third of the overall net increase in the population. , with just over 437, immigrants who entered the country in that period.
And although the Hispanic population continued to grow to reach just over 65 million, its annual growth of 1.8% between 2022 and 2023 is slower than in other years such as between 2012 and 2013 when it grew by 2.0% and 3.7% between 2002 and 2003.
The results of this census occur in a highly politicized environment due to this year’s elections, where Latinos will represent 14.7% of all voters in the November presidential elections, a fact that is more than relevant for the two main candidates.
That’s why Joe Biden, faced with his disadvantage in the polls, activated advertising during the Copa America. But the last word will be up to these voters, whose group has grown by 153% since 2000.
According to experts, Latino voters will define the outcome of the presidential elections in the United States, hence the multiple efforts of the candidates to gain prominence among the largest minority group in the country.
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