Showing posts with label idelissemalave. Show all posts
Showing posts with label idelissemalave. Show all posts

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Latino Stats American Hispanics by the Numbers

The Reading Corner

Last Christmas I received in the mail a new book titled Latino Stats by Idelisse Malave and Esti Giordani, a Puerto Rican mother-daughter team who take a closer look at Hispanics in this country. The recently released paperback book (published by The New Press) is now part of my Puerto Rican/Latino library collection, and it is expected to become a go to guidebook for anyone who wants to better understand the new reality of our nation's widely diverse Latino population. It has been described as the go-to book for anyone who wants to understand the future of America.

This book serves as an important resource for advocates, educators, journalists and policy makers because it cuts through the rhetoric and sensationalism in the mainstream media and highlights with actual numbers the reality of Latino life in the U.S.

Latinos are both the largest and fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the country while many continue to fight for status as Americans. There are 53 million Latinos in the U.S.: one in six Americans is Latino. Thirty years from now, it will be closer to one in three. In about 15 years, Latinos will be 40 percent of the U.S. electorate. As of 2013, Latino buying power stands at an impressive 1.2 trillion, with women driving the purchases.

With statistics on jobs, family, lifestyle, identity and more, Latino Stats is a multi-generational source aimed at being a starting point to delve deeper and educate ourselves on the very broad Latino population and work towards a more equitable future.

Here is a snapshot of sample stats from Latino Stats:

On voting, education and social issues
*Seven out of ten Latino registered voters identify with or lean towards the Democratic Party. Latinos accounted for 10.8 percent of all registered voters in 2012.
* Over the past four decades, the number of Latinos receiving college degrees grew by sevenfold.
* With a median annual household income at $39,000, Latinos earn $11,000 less than the median for the total U.S. population and have the lowest weekly earnings out of any other group.

On immigration
* During the Obama administration, a record-breaking 400 thousand immigrants a year have been deported at a cost of billions of dollars.
* Undocumented immigrants contributed $10.6 billion to state and local sales tax, property tax (even if they rent), and income taxes in 010.
* The majority (two-thirds) of Latinos were born in the U.S. Only 17 percent of all Latinos are undocumented immigrants; the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. has been declining since 2007.

On lifestyle and family
* Just over half (53 percent) of Latinos identify as Catholic. Twelve percent identify as mainline Protestant, 13 percent evagelical Protestant, 6 percent with a non-Christian religion, and 12 percent are unaffiliated.
* Latino millennials living with their parents spend 21 percent of their time with family, and those who live on their own commit 31 percent of their time to family. Latino millennials also spend 14 percent of their time on "me time," slightly more than non-Latinos (10 percent). Interestingly, Latino millennials also carry the least amount of credit card debt compared to their non-Latino counterparts.
* Latinos account for 15.4 percent of same-sex couple households. Contrary to media depictions of Latino homophobia, 59 percent of Latinos also agree that homosexuality should be accepted rather than discouraged by society.

For more information, http://thenewpress.com/books/latino-stats.

Latino Stats will soon be available in the PRSUN aStore as well.