Hispanics/Latinos Demographics

As of July 1, 2007, Hispanics accounted for 15.1% of the national population, or around 45.4 million people. The Hispanic growth rate over the April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 period was

Hispanic Population by state (2006)^[25]

State	Population	% of state population
New Mexico	860,687	44.0
California	13,074,155	35.9
Texas	8,385,118	35.7
Arizona	1,803,377	29.2
Nevada	610,051	24.4
Florida	3,642,989	20.1
Colorado	934,410	19.7
New York	3,139,590	16.3
New Jersey	1,364,699	15.6
Illinois	1,888,439	14.7

28.7% — about four times the rate of the nation's total population (at 7.2%).^[26] The growth rate from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2006 alone was 3.4%^[27] — about three and a half times the rate of the nation's total population (at 1.0%).^[26] The projected Hispanic population of the United

States for July 1, 2050 is 102.6 million people, or 24.4% of the nation’s total projected population on that date.^[28]

Of the nation's total Hispanic or Latino population, 49% (21.5 million) lives in California or Texas. Not counting Puerto Rico — which is a Commonwealth of the United States — New Mexico is the state with the highest ratio of Hispanics, where 44.7% is of Hispanic origin. Next are California and Texas, with 35.9% and 35.6%, respectively.^[29]

Density of Hispanic or Latino residents (2000 Census data)

Percentage of Hispanic or Latino residents by county (2000 Census data)

The overwhelming majority of Mexican Americans are concentrated in the Southwest, primarily in California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico. The majority of the Hispanic population in the Southeast, concentrated in Florida, are of Cuban origin. The Hispanic population in the Northeast, concentrated in New York, New Jersey, and Eastern Pennsylvania, is composed mostly of Puerto Ricans; however, the Dominican population has risen considerably since the mid-1990s. The remainder of Hispanics and Latinos, composed of various Central American and South American origins, may be found throughout the country, though South Americans tend to concentrate on the East Coast and Central Americans on the West Coast.

The Hispanic population of Los Angeles County, California, numbering 4.7 million, is the largest of any county in the nation,^[30] comprising 47 percent of the county's ten million residents.^[31]

As of 2000, the ten most populous places with Hispanic majorities were East Los Angeles (97% Hispanic), Laredo, Texas (94%), Brownsville, Texas (91%) Hialeah, Florida (90%), McAllen, Texas (80%), El Paso, Texas (77%), Santa Ana, California (76%), El Monte, California (72%) Oxnard, California (66%), and Miami (66%).^[32]

Population by national origin (2007)
(self-identified ethnicity, rather than birthplace)^[33]

Hispanic Group	Population	%
Mexican	29,189,334	64.3
Puerto Rican	4,114,701	9.1
Cuban	1,608,835	3.5
Salvadoran	1,473,482	3.2
Dominican	1,198,849	2.6
Guatemalan	859,815	1.9
Colombian	797,195	1.8
Honduran	527,154	1.2
Ecuadorian	523,108	1.2
Peruvian	470,519	1.0
Spanish	353,008	0.8
Nicaraguan	306,438	0.7
Argentine	194,511	0.4
Venezuelan	174,976	0.4
Panamanian	138,203	0.3
Costa Rican	115,960	0.3
Chilean	111,461	0.2
Bolivian	82,434	0.2
Uruguayan	48,234	0.1
Paraguayan	20,432	0.04
Other Central American	111,513	0.2
Other South American	77,898	0.2
All other	2,880,536	6.3
Total	45,378,596	100

Some 64% of the nation's Hispanic population are of Mexican origin (see table). Another 9% are of Puerto Rican origin, with about 3% each of Cuban, Salvadoran and Dominican origins. The remainder are of other Central American or South American origin, or of origin directly from Spain. About 7% are of unspecified national origins. It should be noted that these figures pertain to ethnic self-identification, since the same dataset (abstracted from the 2007 American Community Survey) indicates that 60.2% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans were born in the United States.^[34]

There are few recent immigrants directly from Spain. In the 2000 Census, 299,948 Americans, of whom 83% were native-born,^[35] specifically reported their ancestry as Spaniard.^[36][37]

In northern New Mexico and southern Colorado live peoples who trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers of the late 16th century through the 17th century. People from this background often self-identify as "Hispano", "Spanish", or "Hispanic". Many of these settlers also intermarried with local Amerindians, creating a mestizo population.^[38] Likewise, southern Louisiana is home to communities of people of Canary Islands descent, known as Isleños, in addition to other people of Spanish ancestry.

Hispanics are almost uniformly Christian, with Catholicism the majority confession and an increasing Protestant community.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hispanic_and_Latino_Americans