Education Subscribe to Education Publications

Educational outcomes differ between native-born and immigrant Latinos and between Latinos and other racial and ethnic groups. Measuring those differences and the factors that produce them are critical to understanding the Latino future. The Center’s research focuses on trends in school enrollment and educational attainment.

Also see our statistical portraits, state and county databases, demographic profiles and Census 2010 tables for data on the characteristics of the Latino and foreign-born populations in the United States.

12.04.02

The Improving Educational Profile Of Latino Immigrants

It is a commonplace claim that the education level of the Latino immigrant population is continually falling behind that of the U.S.-born population. However, the Pew Hispanic Center finds that the educational profile of the adult population of foreign-born Latinos has improved significantly during the past three decades. These gains, however, have not yet produced a notable convergence with the level of education in the native-born U.S. population. During the period 1970 to 2000 the native-born population also experienced improvements of education that outpaced the progress among Latino immigrants. Nonetheless, the trends identified in this report suggest that the gap between immigrants and natives will narrow in the future.