Census Bureau estimates 41.3 million in fastest-growing ethnic bloc

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:05 a.m. ET June 9, 2005

WASHINGTON - One of every seven people in the United States is Hispanic, a record number that probably will keep rising because of immigration and a birth rate outstripping that of non-Hispanic blacks and whites.

The country’s largest minority group accounted for one-half of the overall population growth of 2.9 million between July 2003 and July 2004, according to a Census Bureau report being released Thursday.

The agency estimated there are 41.3 million Hispanics in the United States. The bureau does not ask people about their legal status; that number is intended to include both legal and other residents.

The population growth for Asians ran a close second. Increases in both groups are due largely to immigration, but also higher birth rates, said Lewis W. Goodman, an American University expert on U.S.-Latin American relations.

“If we didn’t have those elements, we would be moving into a situation like Japan and Europe ... where the populations are graying in a way that is very alarming and endangering their productivity and endangering even their social security systems,” he said.

Most immigrants to the United States tend to arrive in their 20s, when many people have children. A far greater percentage of whites than Hispanics is 65 or older; the opposite is true of those under 18.