Higher-than-average Latino/ Hispanic birthrates have helped elevate minority groups to a third of the U.S. population, according to government figures released Tuesday.
Colorado’s minority population shows a similar growth pattern. Minorities are about 28 percent of the state population, and Latinos are the fastest-growing segment in the state.
In July 2005, there were 98 million people identified as minorities out of 296.4 million people in the country, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report. The largest minority group was Latino, with 42.7 million people.
“With one-third of the population minority, that’s a major milestone,” said Census Bureau spokesman Robert Bernstein. “It shows we’re an increasingly diverse nation.”
The census figures, based on mid-decade demographic estimates of population growth, show that the country’s Latino population increased 1.3 million between 2004 and 2005, but only 500,000 of that increase was due to immigration. The rest came from births increasing more than deaths.
Another report released Tuesday shows that the birth rate among Latinos nationally is substantially higher than for other minorities and that women of Mexican origin, in particular, have nearly twice as many children as white women do. These patterns also hold true in Colorado.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, also based on Census Bureau figures, shows that there was a 97 percent increase in births to Latino women in Colorado between 1990 and 2000 and an additional 17 percent increase between 2000 and 2003. Colorado was tied for 21st among states in the percentage growth of births to Latino women.
CDC statistician Paul Sutton, one of the report’s authors, said his study shows that Latino birthrates vary sharply according to country of origin. Women of Mexican origin have the highest birthrates, while Cuban-American women have the lowest. Assimilation over subsequent generations tends to reduce the birthrate, Sutton said.
“People moving from Mexico directly are coming from a more third-world type of economy, and as they begin to integrate, they adopt fertility patterns and other patterns from (American) society,” he said.
The report shows that nationwide, the fastest-growing Latino populations are in Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee and that those states have the largest increases in births to Latinos.
The Census Bureau estimates that the United States will be 50 percent minority by 2050. That change, experts say, will bring with it political, social and governmental consequences.
For instance, some minority groups are more susceptible to certain diseases than other groups, so governments must adjust their treatment and education programs.
“Hispanics have a higher propensity for diabetes, so treatment and care are becoming more of a priority” in Colorado, said state demographer Elizabeth Garner.
The Denver Regional Council of Governments is looking at how increasing population affects public transportation.
Newly arriving immigrants, because they tend to have lower income levels, use more public transportation, said Jeff May, division director at DRCOG.
Governments in the metro area hope to improve public transportation so that 73 percent of people can have access to 100,000 jobs within a 45 minute trip by 2030, May said.
With recent rallies by Latinos objecting to crackdowns on illegal immigration, minority politics have been in the forefront of political debate.
But an increasing minority population does not necessarily make it a political force, said Roberto Cordova, co-founder of Voto Latino, which is trying to register 5,000 Latino voters in Colorado for the November elections.
“It’s a massive challenge due to the fact we do not have a history or tradition of voting,” Cordova said, adding the group has only registered 71 new voters. “We are working hard to change that tradition of not voting, but it’s going to be a long-term project.”
Staff writer Monte Whaley contributed to this report.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
