population and have dispersed across the country widely since the 1980s. This reflects the fact that Hispanic population growth has slowed over the past decade or so due to a declining number of births and a decrease in immigration, particularly from Mexico.Īt nearly 60 million, Hispanics are the nation’s largest racial or ethnic minority group. However, only two states – Massachusetts and Nebraska – and the District have joined this list since 2010, while one state (Idaho) dropped off.
In 18 states and the District of Columbia, Latino children accounted for at least 20% of public school kindergarten students in 2017 (the most recent year available), up from eight states in 2000. The number of states where at least one-in-five public school kindergartners are Latino has more than doubled since 2000, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. Today’s kindergartners offer a glimpse of tomorrow’s demographics. (Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images) Kindergartners listen as teacher Bertha Picasso reads a book in Spanish at Marjorie Veeh Elementary School in Tustin, California.