Goodbye 2013 Hispanic Heritage Month Hello Bright Future

Goodbye 2013 Hispanic Heritage Month; Hello Bright Future Tomás Ávila As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to an end, I like to highlight a few positive factors that will continue to evolve for the foreseeable future, playing an important role to the Latino community, the nation and the state: At 53 million strong, Hispanics represent great potential in both politically and economically. The Hispanic population grew 47.5% between 2000 and 2011. (U.S. Census Bureau) Hispanic market's size, growing clout, and buying power of $1 trillion in 2010 will continue to grow to $1.5 trillion by 2015.

From 2002 to 2007, the number of Hispanic-owned business grew from 1.57 million to more than 2.26 million with more than $350 billion in revenue.

A record 11.2 million Latinos voted in the 2012 presidential election, according to the Census Bureau data.

Overall, 48% of Hispanic eligible voters turned out to vote in 2012. (U.S. Census Bureau’s final report on the 2012 presidential election) According to the Census Bureau Educational attainment: College enrollment among Hispanic high school graduates has risen over the past decade: 49% of young Hispanic high-school graduates were enrolled in college in 2012, surpassing the rate for white (47%) and black (45%) high-school grads.

Driven by a single-year surge of 24% in Hispanic enrollment, the number of 18- to 24-year-olds attending college in the United States hit an all-time high of 12.2 million in October 2010, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

In Rhode Island According to the Census Bureau’s 2012 American Community Survey. Rhode Island’s Hispanic population is 138,500, or 13.2% of the state’s total population.

In 2010, the Latino purchasing power in Rhode Island totaled $2.4 billion. (The Multicultural Economy 2010 (Athens, GA: Selig Center for Economic Growth, University of Georgia, 2010).

Latino and Asian businesses in Rhode Island had sales and receipts of over $10 billion and employed more than 5,700 people at last count. (Rhode Island Foundation: In Our Backyard) 32,000 Hispanic Rhode Islanders voted in the November 6, 2012 presidential election up from 20,000 in 2008 and Just 13,000 in 2004. (U.S. Census Bureau’s final report on the 2012 presidential election) Rhode Island's voting-age Hispanic population grew from 84,000 to 95,000 over the last four years. (U.S. Census Bureau’s final report on the 2012 presidential election)

Tomás Ávila

According a report by PolicyLink; An Equity Profile of Rhode Island for the Department of Statewide Planning 1. Rhode Island shows that communities of color are driving the state’s population growth and are essential to the region’s economic success now and into the future.

2. To secure a prosperous future, the state’s leaders must take steps to build a more equitable and sustainable economy.

3. Our country’s population is rapidly diversifying. Already, more than half of all babies born in the United States are people of color.

4. By 2030, the majority of young workers will be people of color. And by 2043, the United States will be a majority people-of color nation.

5. Equity is an economic imperative as well as a moral one. Research shows that equity and diversity are win-win propositions for nations, regions, communities, and firms.

6. All of the state’s recent population growth is attributable to people of color. Latinos, Asians, and African Americans are driving growth and change in the state, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The people-of-color population is growing quickly in the state’s nine largest cities and in the state as a whole. Twenty-four percent of residents are people of color, including a diverse mix of racial and ethnic groups. By 2040, 41 percent of Rhode Islanders will be people of color.

7. Over the past decade, Rhode Island’s Latino population grew 44 percent, adding almost 40,000 residents. The Asian and African American populations also grew by 28 and 23 percent, or 7,000 and 10,000 residents, respectively. The state’s non-Hispanic white population shrank by six percent (55,000 residents).

8. A majority of the growth in the state’s Latino and Asian populations over the past decade has not been due to immigration but to new births among U.S. residents.

9. The rapid growth of people of color in Rhode Island is helping to stem population decline in many of the state’s cities. Five of Rhode Island’s nine largest cities (Warwick, Pawtucket, East Providence, Woonsocket, and Newport) experienced population losses of 2 to 7 percent over the past decade, and these losses would have been more severe were it not for the robust growth of their people-of color populations.

10. Providence, Cranston, Central Falls, and Westerly all grew slightly (1 to 3 percent), and that growth was propelled by the growth of their people-of-color populations.

11. People of color contributed all of the population growth in many communities across the state.

12. Youth are leading the demographic shift occurring in the state. Today, 36 percent of Rhode Island’s youth (under age 18) are people of color, compared with 9 percent of the state’s seniors (over age 64).

13. Rhode Island will continue to grow more diverse in the future, at a rate that is similar to that of the past few decades and slightly higher than the nation as a whole.

It’s a very Bright Future for the growing and evolving Hispanic community. Feliz Mes de la Herencia Hispana.

Tomás Ávila