Hispanics make up half of U.S. population growth

WASHINGTON — Hispanics account for more than half of the U.S. population growth this decade, an increase spurred more by births than immigration, a study released Thursday found.

The U.S. Hispanic population has grown by nearly 30 percent — from about 35 million in 2000 to about 45 million in 2007, says the report by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington.

By comparison, the non-Hispanic U.S. population grew just 4 percent over the same time period.

Richard Fry, a researcher at the Pew Hispanic Center and author of the report, said that it marks a shift from the 1990s, when most of the growth of the Hispanic population was caused by new arrivals.

"What we are now seeing is the secondary impacts of Hispanic international migration from the '80s and '90s," he said. "Now fertility, natural increase, is driving Hispanic growth."

Of the roughly 10 million increase in the Hispanic population since 2000, about 60 percent is due to a natural increase, which means the number of births minus the number of deaths, the study says.

It also found that Latinos continue to disperse throughout the United States to new areas, including several counties in the West and Northeast.

Some of the counties with rapid growth in the Hispanic population are in Montana, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts.

However, 80 percent of the growth in the Latino community is still occurring in the South and the West. The 25 fastest growing counties in terms of net Hispanic population growth this decade are mostly in California, Texas, Arizona and Florida, the study said.

The report did not analyze the reason for the Hispanic migration, but Fry said that Latinos tend to migrate to places with "vigorous labor market opportunities."

The report seems to back up that premise. It shows a cooling off of Latino migration to areas in the Midwest such as Michigan and Minnesota, which have been hard hit by the nation's financial crisis.

The report, which is based on data from the U.S. Census, includes Hispanics who are U.S. citizens, legal residents and illegal immigrants. The Census Bureau does not ask people their legal status.

The study also found:

• The Hispanic population has grown in almost 3,000 of the nation's 3,141 counties.

• The Hispanic population growth since 2000 has been fairly concentrated. Almost 80 percent of the growth occurred in 178 counties.

• Despite dispersal to new areas, the Hispanic population continues to be geographically concentrated. In 2007, 73 percent of Latinos lived in the 100 largest Hispanic counties.

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E-mail: emoscoso@coxnews.com