A record seven-in-ten (69%) Hispanic high school graduates in the class of 2012 enrolled in college that fall, two percentage points higher than the rate (67%) among their white counterparts,¹ according to a Pew Research Center analysis of new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.²

This milestone is the result of a long-term increase in Hispanic college-going that accelerated with the onset of the recession in 2008 (Fry and Lopez, 2012). The rate among white high school graduates, by contrast, has declined slightly since 2008.

The positive trends in Hispanic educational indicators also extend to high school. The most recent available data show that in 2011 only 14% of Hispanic 16- to 24-year-olds were high school dropouts, half the level in 2000 (28%). Starting from a much lower base, the high school dropout rate among whites also declined during that period (from 7% in 2000 to 5% in 2011), but did not fall by as much.

Despite the narrowing of some of these long-standing educational attainment gaps, Hispanics continue to lag whites in a number of key higher education measures. Young Hispanic college students are less likely than their white counterparts to enroll in a four-year college (56% versus 72%), they are less likely to attend a selective college,³ less likely to be enrolled in college full time, and less likely to complete a bachelor’s degree.

It is possible that the rise in high school completion and college enrollment by Latino youths has been driven, at least in part, by their declining fortunes in the job market. Since the onset of the recession at the end of 2007, unemployment among Latinos ages 16 to 24 has gone up by seven percentage points, compared with a five percentage point rise among white youths. With jobs harder to find, more Latino youths may have chosen to stay in school longer.

Another factor, however, could be the importance that Latino families place on a college education. According to a 2009 Pew Hispanic Center survey, 88% of Latinos ages 16 and older agreed that a college degree is necessary to get ahead in life today (Pew Hispanic Center, 2009). By contrast, a separate 2009 survey of all Americans ages 16 and older found that fewer (74%) said the same (Pew Research Social & Demographic Trends, 2009).

About this Report

This report is mainly based on data published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in its “College Enrollment and Work Activity of High School Graduates” news releases. The original data source is the October school enrollment supplement of the Current Population Survey (CPS). Collected by the Census Bureau, the CPS is best known as the source for the monthly national unemployment rate and other labor force statistics. Each October since 1956 the CPS has included a supplemental questionnaire on school and college enrollment in the current and past year. Each month the CPS surveys about 60,000 households or about 135,000 persons. Further information on the October CPS can be found in the most recent “College Enrollment and Work Activity of High School Graduates” release or Davis and Bauman (2011).

The CPS is nationally representative of the civilian noninstitutionalized population.

This report was written by Richard Fry and Paul Taylor. Research Assistant Eileen Patten expertly formatted the tables and figures. Patten and Research Associate Wendy Wang number-checked the report. Molly Rohal was the copy editor. The authors appreciate the expertise and input of Associate Director Mark Hugo Lopez.

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this report.

Unless otherwise noted, the terms “whites,” “blacks,” and “Asians” include both the Hispanic and the non-Hispanic components of their populations.

A “recent high school graduate” refers to a 16- to 24-year-old who completed high school in the calendar year (January through October) of the survey. The vast majority of graduates finished high school by obtaining a high school diploma, but those obtaining a GED or other equivalency are included.

An “immediate college entrant” or “recent college entrant” refers to a recent high school graduate who in October following graduation reports being enrolled in a college or university. Enrollment in trade schools, on-the-job training or correspondence courses is only considered as college enrollment if it advances the high school graduate toward a college, university or professional degree.

A “recent high school dropout” refers to a 16- to 24-year-old who reports not being enrolled in October of the survey year, attended school a year earlier, and did not have a high school diploma.

The ACS is the largest household survey in the United States, with a sample of about 3 million addresses. It covers the topics previously covered in the long form of the decennial census. The ACS is designed to provide estimates of the size and characteristics of the resident population, which includes persons living in households and group quarters.

The specific data sources for this statistical profile are the 1% sample of the 2011 ACS Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and the 5% sample of the 2000 Census IPUMS provided by the University of Minnesota.¹ The IPUMS assigns uniform codes, to the extent possible, to data collected by the decennial census and the ACS from 1850 to 2011. Due to differences in the way in which the IPUMS and Census Bureau adjust income data and assign poverty status, data provided in Tables 31 – 37 might differ from data on these variables that are provided by the Census Bureau. For more information about the IPUMS, including variable definition and sampling error, please visit http://usa.ipums.org/usa/design.shtml. To learn more about the sampling strategy and associated error of the 2000 Census or the 2011 American Community Survey, please refer to Chapter 8 of the U.S. Census Summary File 3: 2000 and U.S. Census Design Methodology, respectively.

For the purposes of this statistical portrait, the foreign born include those persons who identified as naturalized citizens or non-citizens and are living in the 50 states or the District of Columbia. Persons born in Puerto Rico and other outlying territories of the U.S. and who are now living in the 50 states or the District of Columbia are included in the native-born population.

The nation’s Hispanic ¹ student population reached a number of milestones in 2011, according to an analysis of newly available U.S. Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

For the first time, the number of 18- to 24-year-old Hispanics enrolled in college exceeded 2 million and reached a record 16.5% share of all college enrollments. ²  Hispanics are the largest minority group on the nation’s college campuses, a milestone first achieved last year (Fry, 2011). But as their growth among all college-age students continues to outpace other groups, Hispanics are now, for the first time, the largest minority group among the nation’s four-year college and university students. And for the first time, Hispanics made up one-quarter (25.2%) of 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled in two-year colleges.

In the nation’s public schools, Hispanics also reached new milestones. For the first time, one-in-four (24.7%) public elementary school students were Hispanic, following similar milestones reached recently by Hispanics among public kindergarten students (in 2007) and public nursery school students (in 2006). Among all pre-K through 12^th grade public school students, a record 23.9% were Hispanic in 2011.

The new milestones reflect a number of continuing upward trends. Between 1972 and 2011, the Latino share of 18- to 24-year-old college students steadily grew—rising from 2.9% to 16.5%. During the same period, among all public school students, the Latino share grew from 6.0% to 23.9%. In both cases, rapid Latino population growth has played a role in driving Latino student enrollment gains over the past four decades.

However, population growth alone does not explain all the enrollment gains made by Hispanic students in recent years (Fry, 2011). Today, with the high school completion rate among young Hispanics at a new high, more young Hispanics than ever are eligible to attend college. According to the Pew Hispanic analysis, 76.3% of all Hispanics ages 18 to 24 had a high school diploma or a General Educational Development (GED) degree in 2011, up from 72.8% in 2010. And among these high school completers, a record share—nearly half (45.6%)—is enrolled in two-year or four-year colleges. Both demographic trends and greater eligibility have contributed to growth in the number of Hispanic young people enrolled in college in recent years.

In addition to gains in enrollment, the number of degrees conferred on Latino college students has also reached new highs. ³ In 2010, the number of Latinos who received a bachelor’s degree reached a record 140,000 recipients, according to data published by the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education (Snyder and Dillow, 2012). A record number of associate degrees were awarded to Latinos in 2010 as well—112,000. In both cases, Latinos are a growing share of all degree recipients—13.2% among those with an associate degree and 8.5% among those who received a bachelor’s degree in 2010. Despite these gains, the Latino share among degree recipients significantly lagged their share among 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled in two-year colleges (21.7%) and four-year colleges and universities (11.7%) in 2010.

Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group, making up more than 50 million people, or about 16.5% of the U.S. population. Among the 30 million young people ages 18 to 24, 6 million, or 20%, are Hispanics.

The ACS is the largest household survey in the United States, with a sample of about 3 million addresses. It covers the topics previously covered in the long form of the decennial census. The ACS is designed to provide estimates of the size and characteristics of the resident population, which includes persons living in households and group quarters.

The specific data sources for this statistical profile are the 1% sample of the 2010 ACS Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and the 5% sample of the 2000 Census IPUMS provided by the University of Minnesota.¹ The IPUMS assigns uniform codes, to the extent possible, to data collected by the decennial census and the ACS from 1850 to 2010. Due to differences in the way in which the IPUMS and Census Bureau adjust income data and assign poverty status, data provided in Tables 27 – 37 might differ from data on these variables that are provided by the Census Bureau. For more information about the IPUMS, including variable definition and sampling error, please visit http://usa.ipums.org/usa/design.shtml. To learn more about the sampling strategy and associated error of the 2000 Census or the 2010 American Community Survey, please refer to Chapter 8 of the U.S. Census Summary File 3: 2000 and U.S. Census Design Methodology, respectively.

For the purposes of this statistical portrait, the foreign born include those persons who identified as naturalized citizens or non-citizens. Persons born in Puerto Rico and other outlying territories of the U.S. are included in the native-born population.

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.¹

College-age Hispanics accounted for 1.8 million, or 15%, of the overall enrollment of 12.2 million young adults in two- or four-year colleges in 2010—setting records both for their number and share of young college students.²

From 2009 to 2010, the number of Hispanic young adults enrolled in college grew by 349,000, compared with an increase of 88,000 young blacks and 43,000 young Asian-Americans and a decrease of 320,000 young whites.³

As a result of these shifts, young Hispanics for the first time outnumbered young blacks on campus, even though black college enrollment has also grown steadily for decades and it, too, has surged in recent years. In 2010, 38% of all 18- to 24-year-old blacks were enrolled in college, up from 13% in 1967 and 32% in 2008.

Despite the rapid growth in the number of young Hispanics enrolled in college, Hispanics are not the largest minority group on the nation’s four-year college campuses. Young black students continued to outnumber young Hispanic students by a dwindling margin at four-year colleges and universities.

The Hispanic enrollment increase has been even more dramatic than the black enrollment increase because it has been spurred by a mixture of population growth and educational strides. High levels of immigration and high birth rates have made Hispanics the nation’s biggest minority group, comprising 16% of the U.S. population as of 2010. In 1972, just 5% of the nation’s 18- to 24-year-olds were Hispanic. By 2010, that share rose to 19%.

However, population growth accounts for only a small share of the 24% Hispanic college enrollment spike from 2009 to 2010. During that same period, the total population of 18- to 24-year-old Hispanics grew by 7%.

Rising educational attainment is the more dominant driver of these enrollment trends, over the long term as well as in recent years. The share of young Hispanics enrolled in college rose from 13% in 1972 to 27% in 2009 to 32% in 2010. Although the college enrollment rate of young Hispanics is at a record (32%), black (38%), Asian (62%) and white (43%) young adults continue to be more likely than young Hispanics to be enrolled in college.

Hispanic educational attainment rose sharply from 2009 to 2010: The share of Hispanic 18- to 24-year-olds who have completed high school increased to 73% in 2010 from 70% in 2009, and the share of young Hispanic high school graduates who are attending college increased to 44% in 2010 from 39% in 2009.

Much of this growth in college enrollment among young Hispanics has been at community colleges. Of all young Hispanics who were attending college last October, some 46% were at a two-year college and 54% were at a four-year college. By contrast, among young white college students, 73% were enrolled in a four-year college, as were 78% of young Asian college students and 63% of young black college students.

The 320,000 student decline in young white enrollment since 2009 is a 4% decline and the largest decline in percentage terms since at least 1993 (when this historical series begins). The decline partly reflects that the size of the white 18- to 24-year-old population peaked in 2008.

The Impact of a Sluggish Economy

College enrollments have been rising steadily for decades, but the pace of growth accelerated when the Great Recession began in 2007. Historically high levels of unemployment, especially for young adults, appear to have served as a stimulant to college enrollment (Fry, 2009).

The recession was officially over by mid-2009, but the economy has continued to struggle to generate new jobs and college enrollments have continued to set records. However, these macroeconomic conditions cannot fully explain why Hispanic enrollments grew so much more from 2009 to 2010 than did the enrollments of other racial and economic groups. For that, the demographic and educational attainment trends cited above would seem to be more determinative.

Enrollment Versus Completion

Although Hispanic youths have narrowed the gap in college enrollment, Hispanic young adults continue to be the least educated major racial or ethnic group in terms of completion of a bachelor’s degree. In 2010, only 13% of Hispanic 25- to 29-year-olds had completed at least a bachelor’s degree (National Center for Education Statistics, 2011a). In comparison, more than half (53%) of non-Hispanic Asian young adults have at least a bachelor’s degree, and nearly 39% of white young adults completed a four-year degree. Among non-Hispanic black 25- to 29-year-olds, 19% have at least a bachelor’s degree. The low college completion of Hispanic young adults partly reflects the lower schooling levels of Hispanic immigrants. Among native-born Hispanic 25- to 29-year-olds, 20% had completed a bachelor’s degree.

Measuring College Enrollments

In analyzing trends in college enrollments by race and ethnicity, this report focuses on the enrollments of 18- to 24-year-olds, the traditional age of college students.

However, many older adults also attend college. In 2010, 18- to 24-years-olds accounted for 60% of the entire college population in the U.S. and 71% of the full-time college population.

As shown in Figure 3, the long-term trends for enrollments of college students of all ages and ages 18 to 24 have followed a similar trajectory. Both groups set records for enrollments in 2010.

The specific data sources for this statistical profile are the 1% sample of the 2009 ACS Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and the 5% sample of the 2000 Census IPUMS provided by the University of Minnesota.¹ The IPUMS assigns uniform codes, to the extent possible, to data collected by the decennial census and the ACS from 1850 to 2009. Due to differences in the way in which the IPUMS and Census Bureau adjust income data and assign poverty status, data provided in Tables 27 – 34 might differ from data on these variables that are provided by the Census Bureau. For more information about the IPUMS, including variable definition and sampling error, please visit http://usa.ipums.org/usa/design.shtml. To learn more about the sampling strategy and associated error of the 2000 Census or the 2009 American Community Survey, please refer to Chapter 8 of the U.S. Census Summary File 3: 2000 and U.S. Cenus Design Methodology, respectively.

Because persons living in group quarters were not included in the 2005 ACS, the data contained in this profile of foreign-born persons, tabulated from the 2009 ACS, are not comparable with the data included in the Pew Hispanic Center’s Foreign Born at Mid-Decade report.

For the purposes of this statistical portrait, the foreign born include those persons who identified as naturalized citizens or non-citizens. Persons born in Puerto Rico and other outlying territories of the U.S. are included in the native-born population.

Just one-in-ten Hispanic high school dropouts has a General Educational Development (GED) credential, widely regarded as the best “second chance” pathway to college, vocational training and military service for adults who have not graduated from high school. By contrast, two-in-ten black high school dropouts and three-in-ten white high school dropouts have a GED, according to a Pew Hispanic Center analysis of newly available educational attainment data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey.

The relatively low level of GED credentialing among Hispanic high school dropouts is especially notable because Hispanics have a much higher high school dropout rate than do blacks or whites. Some 41% of Hispanics ages 20 and older in the United States do not have a regular high school diploma, versus 23% of comparably aged blacks and 14% of whites.

Among Hispanics, there are significant differences between the foreign born and the native born in high school diploma attainment rates and GED credentialing rates. Some 52% of foreign-born Latino adults are high school dropouts, compared with 25% of the native born. And among Hispanic dropouts, some 21% of the native born have a GED, compared with just 5% of the foreign born.

Hispanics are the nation’s largest minority group; they make up 47 million, or 15%, of the population of the United States. As of 2008, there were 29 million Hispanics ages 20 and older; of this group, 41% are native born and 59% are foreign born.

This Pew Hispanic Center report also analyzes labor market outcomes of Hispanic adults based on whether they dropped out of high school, have a GED or obtained a regular high school diploma or more. Among its key findings:

• As of 2008, Hispanic adults with a GED had a higher unemployment rate than Hispanic adults with a high school diploma—9% versus 7%.
• However, Hispanic full-time, full-year workers with a GED had about the same mean annual earnings ($33,504) as Hispanic full-time, full-year workers with a high school diploma ($32,972).

About this Report

The analysis examines the educational attainment and outcomes of adults ages 20 and older, based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS covers the entire resident population, including persons in correctional facilities and nursing homes. The 2008 ACS for the first time distinguished between respondents whose highest education was a regular high school diploma and those who earned a GED or other alternative high school credential.

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this report, as are the terms “foreign born” and “immigrant.” “Foreign born” refers to persons born outside of the United States to parents neither of whom was a U.S. citizen. Foreign born also refers to those born in Puerto Rico. “Native born” refers to persons born in the United States and those born abroad to parents at least one of whom was a U.S. citizen.

All references to whites and blacks are to the non-Hispanic components of those populations.

Adults who have not obtained a regular high school diploma or more education are referred to as “high school dropouts.” Also, adults who report their highest education level as a GED or other alternative high school credential are “high school dropouts.”

The updated profiles feature two new topics: racial self-identification and health insurance coverage. Racial identity questions in census forms have varied over the years and that has had an impact on results. The race and ethnicity questions in the 2008 ACS reflect the wording being used in the 2010 census. Thus, the 2008 data predict how the results may appear in the 2010 census as well as how those results may differ from the 2000 census. Questions on health insurance coverage were included in the ACS for the first time in 2008. The large sample size of the ACS permits more detailed analysis of that issue at the state level and by detailed demographics.

Two profiles—Hispanics in the United States, 2008 and Foreign-Born Population in the United States, 2008—are national in scope. These profiles focus on the demographic and economic characteristics of Hispanics and the foreign born in the U.S. Topics covered include racial self-identification, age, geographic dispersion, nativity, citizenship, origin, language proficiency, living arrangements, marital status, fertility, schooling, health insurance coverage, earnings, poverty and other labor market outcomes.

A second set of profiles focuses on the demographic and economic characteristics of Hispanics in each of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The range of topics covered in the State Demographic Profiles is similar to those included in the national portraits of Hispanics and the foreign born. Comparisons with the white, black and total populations are also available in the statistical portraits.

Racial Self-identification

When asked to identify their race, most Hispanics—62.5% in 2008—say they are white only. A small share—just 1.9%—self-identify as black only, and a sizeable minority—30.4%—self identifies with “some other race.” Among non-Hispanics, by contrast, just 0.3% identify with “some other race.”

Even though nearly one-third of Hispanics identified with “some other race” in 2008 that share is significantly less than in preceding years. Historically, about four-in-ten Hispanics have reported as being of some other race—37.7% in the 1980 census;¹ 43.2% in the 1990 census; 42.6% in the 2000 census and 39.7% in the 2007 ACS. The share persisted in that range despite several revisions in the race and Hispanic origin questions from census to census.

Why did the share of Hispanics identifying with some other race drop by nine percentage points from 2007 to 2008? The answer is not known definitively but a revision in the instructions may have contributed to that drop. The new instruction (in bold) in the 2008 ACS appears before the Hispanic-origin and race questions and is as follows: “NOTE: Please answer BOTH Question 5 about Hispanic origin and Question 6 about race. For this survey, Hispanic origins are not races.” The same instruction appears in the 2010 census.

The Census Bureau instruction “Hispanic origins are not races” is noteworthy from another perspective. Surveys of Latinos conducted by the Pew Hispanic Center generally find that a plurality volunteers Hispanic/Latino when asked the following: “What race do you consider yourself to be: white, black or African-American, Asian, or some other race?” In the 2009 National Survey of Latinos the response to this question was as follows: 26% white, 8% black or other, 28% some other race, and 37% Hispanic/Latino (volunteered).

Health Insurance Coverage

A question on health insurance coverage was asked in the ACS for the first time in 2008. The uninsured rate estimated from the ACS reflects the share of the population that lacked public or private health insurance coverage at the time of the survey. The ACS is conducted each month of the year and the resulting estimate is an annual average for 2008.

Among racial and ethnic groups, Hispanics are the least likely to have health insurance. Nationally, the uninsured rate among Hispanics was 31.7% in 2008. The rate among whites—10.7%—is the lowest of any group and the rate for blacks—19.0%—lies in between. Nativity also matters—12.9% of all native born are uninsured but the rate climbs to 32.9% for the foreign born. The uninsured rate for non-citizens was 46.4% in 2008.

The state demographic profiles also present data on health insurance coverage by race, ethnicity and nativity.

The specific data sources for this statistical profile are the 1% sample of the 2008 ACS Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) and the 5% sample of the 2000 Census IPUMS provided by the University of Minnesota.¹ The IPUMS assigns uniform codes, to the extent possible, to data collected by the decennial census and the ACS from 1850 to 2008. Due to differences in the way in which the IPUMS and Census Bureau adjust income data and assign poverty status, data provided in Tables 27 – 34 might differ from data on these variables that are provided by the Census Bureau. For more information about the IPUMS, including variable definition and sampling error, please visit usa.ipums.org/usa/design.shtml. To learn more about the sampling strategy and associated error of the 2000 Census or the 2008 American Community Survey, please refer to Chapter 8 of the U.S. Census Summary File 3: 2000 and U.S. Cenus Design Methodology, respectively.

Because persons living in group quarters were not included in the 2005 ACS, the data contained in this profile of foreign-born persons, tabulated from the 2008 ACS, are not comparable with the data included in the Pew Hispanic Center’s Foreign Born at Mid-Decade report.

For the purposes of this statistical portrait, the foreign born include those persons who identified as naturalized citizens or non-citizens. Persons born in Puerto Rico and other outlying territories of the U.S. are included in the native-born population.

Hispanics are the largest and youngest minority group in the United States. One- in-five schoolchildren is Hispanic. One-in-four newborns is Hispanic. Never before in this country’s history has a minority ethnic group made up so large a share of the youngest Americans. By force of numbers alone, the kinds of adults these young Latinos become will help shape the kind of society America becomes in the 21st century.

This report takes an in-depth look at Hispanics who are ages 16 to 25, a phase of life when young people make choices that—for better and worse—set their path to adulthood. For this particular ethnic group, it is also a time when they navigate the intricate, often porous borders between the two cultures they inhabit—American and Latin American.

The report explores the attitudes, values, social behaviors, family characteristics, economic well-being, educational attainment and labor force outcomes of these young Latinos. It is based on a new Pew Hispanic Center telephone surveyof a nationally representative sample of 2,012 Latinos, supplemented by the Center’s analysis of government demographic, economic, education and health data sets.

The data paint a mixed picture. Young Latinos are satisfied with their lives, optimistic about their futures and place a high value on education, hard work and career success. Yet they are much more likely than other American youths to drop out of school and to become teenage parents. They are more likely than white and Asian youths to live in poverty. And they have high levels of exposure to gangs.

These are attitudes and behaviors that, through history, have often been associated with the immigrant experience. But most Latino youths are not immigrants. Two-thirds were born in the United States, many of them descendants of the big, ongoing wave of Latin American immigrants who began coming to this country around 1965.

As might be expected, they do better than their foreign-born counterparts on many key economic, social and acculturation indicators analyzed in this report. They are much more proficient in English and are less likely to drop out of high school, live in poverty or become a teen parent.

But on a number of other measures, U.S.-born Latino youths do no better than the foreign born. And on some fronts, they do worse.

For example, native-born Latino youths are about twice as likely as the foreign born to have ties to a gang or to have gotten into a fight or to have carried a weapon in the past year. They are also more likely to be in prison.

The picture becomes even more murky when comparisons are made among youths who are first generation (immigrants themselves), second generation (U.S.-born children of immigrants) and third and higher generation (U.S.-born grandchildren or more far-removed descendants of immigrants).¹

For example, teen parenthood rates and high school dropout rates are much lower among the second generation than the first, but they appear higher among the third generation than the second. The same is true for poverty rates.

Identity and Assimilation

Throughout this nation’s history, immigrant assimilation has always meant something morethan the sum of the sorts of economic and social measures outlined above. It also has a psychological dimension. Over the course of several generations, the immigrant family typically loosens its sense of identity from the old country andbinds it to the new.

It is too soon to tell if this process will playout for today’s Hispanic immigrants antheir offspring in the same way it did fthe European immigrants of the 19th and early 20 centuries. But whatever the ultimate trajectory, it is clear that many of today’s Latino youths, be they first or second generation, are straddling two worlds as they adapt to the new homeland.

According to the Pew Hispanic Center’s National Survey of Latinos, more than half (52%) of Latinos ages 16 to 25 identify themselves first by their family’s country of origin, be it Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador or any of more than a dozen other Spanish-speaking countries. An additional 20% generally use the terms “Hispanic” or “Latino” first when describing themselves. Only about one-in-four (24%) generally use the term “American” first.

Among the U.S.-born children of immigrants, “American” is somewhat more commonly used as a primary term of self-identification. Even so, just 33% of these young second generation Latinos use American first, while 21% refer to themselves first by the terms Hispanic or Latino, and theplurality—41%—refer to themselves first by the country their parents left in order to settle and raise their children in this country.

Only in the third and higher generations do a majority of Hispanic youths (50%) use “American” as their first term of self-description.

Immigration in Historical Perspective

Measured in raw numbers, the modern Latin American-dominated immigration wave is by far the largest in U.S. history. Nearly 40 million immigrants have come to the United States since 1965. About half are from Latin America, a quarter from Asia and the remainder from Europe, Canada, the Middle East and Africa. By contrast, about 14 million immigrants came during the big Northern and Western European immigration wave of the 19th century and about 18 million came during the big Southern and Eastern European-dominated immigration wave of the early 20th century.²

However, the population of the United States was much smaller during those earlier waves. When measured against the size of the U.S. population during the period when the immigration occurred, the modern wave’s average annual rate of 4.6 new immigrants per 1,000 population falls well below the 7.7 annual rate that prevailed in the mid- to late 19th century and the 8.8 rate at the beginning of the 20th century.

All immigration waves produce backlashes of one kind or another, and the lateone is no exception. Illegal immigration, in particular, has become a highly-charged political issue in recent times. It is also a relatively new phenomenon; past immigration waves did not generate large numbers of illegal immigrants because the U.S. imposed fewer restrictions on immigration flow in the past than it does now.

The current wave may differ from earlier waves in other ways as well. Moire than a few immigration scholars have voiced skepticism that the children and the grandchildren of today’s Hispanic immigrants will enjoy the same upward mobility experienced by the offspring of European immigrants in previous centuries.³

Their reasons vary, and not all are consistent with one another. Some scholars point to structural changes in modern economies that make it more difficult for unskilled laborers to climb into the middle class. Some say the illegal status of so many of today’s immigrants is a major obstacle to their upward mobility. Some say the close proximity of today’s sending countries and the relative ease of modern global communication reduce the felt need of immigrants and their families to acculturate to their new country. Some say the fatalism of Latin American cultures is a poor fit in a society built on Anglo-Saxon values. Some say that America’s growing tolerance for cultural diversity may encourage modern immigrants and their offspring to retain ethnic identities that were seen by yesterday’s immigrants as a handicap. (The melting pot is dead. Long live the salad bowl.) Alternatively, some say that Latinos’ brown skin makes assimilation difficult in a country where white remains the racial norm.

It will probably take at least another generation’s worth of new facts on the ground to know whether these theories have merit. But it is not too soon to take some snapshots and lay down some markers. This report does so by assembling a wide range of empirical evidence (some generated by our own new survey; some by our analysis of government data) and subjecting it to a series of comparisons: between Latinos and non-Latinos; between young Latinos and older Latinos; between foreign-born Latinos and native-born Latinos; and between first, second, and third and higher generations of Latinos.

The generational analyses presented here do not compare the outcomes of individual Latino immigrants with those of their own children or grandchildren. Instead, our generational analysis compares today’s young Latino immigrants with today’s children and grandchildren of yesterday’s immigrants. As such, the report can provide some insights into the intergenerational mobility of an immigrant group over time. But it cannot fully disentangle the many factors that may help explain the observed patterns—be they compositional effects (the different skills, education levels and other forms of human capital that different cohorts of immigrants bring) or period effects (the different economic conditions that confront immigrants in different time periods).

Readers should be especially careful when interpreting findings about the third and higher generation, for this is a very diverse group. We estimate that about 40% are the grandchildren of Latin American immigrants, while the remainder can trace their roots in this country much farther back in time.

For some in this mixed group, endemic poverty and its attendant social ills have been a part of their families, barrios and colonias for generations, even centuries. Meantime, others in the third and higher generation have been upwardly mobile in ways consistent with the generational trajectories of European immigrant groups. Because the data we use in this report do not allow us to separate out the different demographic sub-groups within the third and higher generation, the overall numbers we present are averages that often mask large variances within this group.

A summary of the major findings of the report:

Demography

• Two-thirds of Hispanics ages 16 to 25 are native-born Americans. That figure may surprise those who think of Latinos mainly as immigrants. But the four-decade-old Hispanic immigration wave is now mature enough to have spawned a big second generation of U.S.-born children who are on the cusp of adulthood. Back in 1995, nearly half of all Latinos ages 16 to 25 were immigrants. This year marks the first time that a plurality (37%) of Latinos in this age group are the U.S.-born children of immigrants. An additional 29% are of third-and-higher generations. Just 34% are immigrants themselves.
• Hispanics are not only the largest minority population in the United States, they are also the youngest. Their median age is 27, compared with 31 for blacks, 36 for Asians and 41 for whites. One-quarter of all newborns in the United States are Hispanic.
• About 17% of all Hispanics and 22% of all Hispanic youths ages 16 to 25 are unauthorized immigrants, according to Pew Hispanic Center estimates. Some 41% of all foreign-born Hispanics and 58% of foreign-born Hispanic youths are estimated to be unauthorized immigrants.
• Latinos make up about 18% of all youths in the U.S. ages 16 to 25. However, their share is far higher in a number of states. They make up 51% of all youths in New Mexico, 42% in California, 40% in Texas, 36% in Arizona, 31% in Nevada, 24% in Florida, and 24% in Colorado.
• More than two-thirds (68%) of young Latinos are of Mexican heritage. They are growing up in families that on average have less “educational capital” than do other Latinos. More than four-in-ten young Latinos of Mexican origin say their mothers (42%) and fathers (44%) have less than a high school diploma, compared with about one-quarter of non-Mexican-heritage young Latinos who say the same.

Identity and Parental Socialization

• Asked which term they generally use first to describe themselves, young Hispanics show a strong preference for their family’s country of origin (52%) over American (24%) or the terms Hispanic or Latino (20%). Among the U.S.-born children of immigrants, the share that identifies first as American rises to one-in-three, and among the third and higher generations, it rises to half.
• Young Hispanics are being socialized in a family setting that places a strong emphasis on their Latin American roots. More say their parents have often spoken to them of their pride in their family’s country of origin than say their parents have often talked to them of their pride in being American—42% versus 29%. More say they have often been encouraged by their parents to speak in Spanish than say they have often been encouraged to speak only in English—60% versus 22%. The survey also finds that the more likely young Latinos are to receive these kinds of signals from their parents, the more likely they are to refer to themselves first by their country of origin.
• By a ratio of about two-to-one, young Hispanics say there are more cultural differences (64%) than commonalities (33%) within the Hispanic community in the U.S. At the same time, about two-thirds (64%) say that Latinos from different countries get along well with each other in the U.S., while about one-third say they do not.
• Most young Hispanics do not see themselves fitting into the race framework of the U.S. Census Bureau. More than three-in-four (76%) say their race is “some other race” or volunteer that their race is “Hispanic or Latino.” Young Hispanics also do not see their race in the same way as Hispanics ages 26 and older. Only 16% of Hispanic youths identify themselves as white, while nearly twice as many (30%) older Hispanics identify their race as white.

Language

• About one-third (36%) of Latinos ages 16 to 25 are English dominant in their language patterns, while 41% are bilingual and 23% are Spanish dominant.
• The language usage patterns of Latinos change dramatically from the immigrant generation to the native born. Among foreign-born Latinos ages 16 to 25, just 48% say they can speak English very well or pretty well. Among their native-born counterparts, that figures doubles to 98%.
• For the children of immigrants and later generations, embracing English does not necessarily mean abandoning Spanish. Fully 79% of the second generation and 38% of the third report that they are proficient in speaking Spanish. These figures are below the share of immigrant youths who are proficient in Spanish (89%), but they demonstrate the resilience of the mother tongue for several generations after immigration.
• For both native-born and foreign-born young Hispanics, the boundaries between English and Spanish are permeable. Seven-in-ten (70%) say that when speaking with family members and friends, they often or sometimes use a hybrid known as “Spanglish” that mixes words from both languages.

Teenage Parenthood

• Young Hispanic females have the highest rates of teen parenthood of any major racial or ethnic group in the country. According to the Center’s analysis of Census data, about one-in-four young Hispanic females (26%) becomes a mother by age 19. This compares with a rate of 22% among young black females, 11% among young white females, and 6% among young Asian females.
• Notwithstanding those numbers, the rate of births to Hispanic females ages 15 to 19 declined by 18% from 1990 to 2007. But among the full population, the rate of births to teenagers in this age group declined by 29% during the same period.
• A heavy majority of older Latinos (81%) and Latino youths (75%) say that more teenage girls having babies is a bad thing for society. Even higher shares of the full U.S. population say the same thing—94% of all adults and 90% of all 18- to 25-year-olds.
• About seven-in-ten (69%) Latino youths say that becoming a teen parent prevents a person from reaching one’s goals in life; 28% disagree.
• Native-born Latino youths have a somewhat more negative view of teen parenthood than do the foreign born. Some 71% of the second generation and 78% of the third say teen parenthood interferes with one’s goals in life. Just 62% of foreign-born youths agree. The pattern is the same on the question of whether more teen parenthood is bad for society.
• On average, Hispanic females are projected to have just over three children in their lifetime. In comparison, African-American women are projected to have an average of 2.15 children in their lifetime, and for whites this number is 1.86.

Life Priorities and Satisfaction

• Like most youths, young Latinos express high levels of satisfaction with their lives, with half saying they are “very” satisfied and 45% saying they are “mostly” satisfied. They are also optimistic about their futures. More than seven-in-ten (72%) expect to be better off financially than their parents, while just 4% expect to be worse off. Optimism on this question runs a bit higher among native-born Latinos (75%) than among the foreign born (66%).
• Even more so than other youths, young Latinos have high aspirations for career success. Some 89% say it is very important in their lives, compared with 80% of the full population of 18- to 25-year-olds who say the same.
• Other life priorities rank a bit lower among Latino youths. About half say that having children (55%), living a religious life (51%) and being married (48%) are very important to their lives; about a quarter (24%) say the same about being wealthy. All of these ratings are very similar to those made by non-Latino youths.
• Latinos believe in the rewards of hard work. More than eight-in-ten—including 80% of Latino youths and 86% of Latinos ages 26 and older—say that most people can get ahead in life if they work hard.
• Nearly four-in-ten (38%) young Latinos say they, a relative or close friend has been the target of ethnic or racial discrimination. This is higher than the share of older Latinos who say the same (31%). Also, perceptions of discrimination are more widespread among native-born (41%) than foreign-born (32%) young Latinos.

Educational Expectations and Attainment

• The high school dropout rate among Latino youths (17%) is nearly three times as high as it is among white youths (6%) and nearly double the rate among blacks (9%). Rates for all groups have been declining for decades.
• The high school dropout rate for the second generation of Latino youth (9%) is higher than the rate for whites (6%) and Asians (4%) but comparable to the rate for blacks (9%).
• Nearly all Latino youths (89%) and older adults (88%) agree with the statement that a college degree is important for getting ahead in life. However, just under half of Latinos ages 18 to 25 say they plan to get a college degree.
• The reason most often given by Latino youths who cut off their education before college is financial pressure to support a family. Nearly three-quarters of this group say this is a big reason for not continuing in school. About half cite poor English skills; about four-in-ten cite a dislike of school or a belief that they do not need more education for the careers they plan to pursue.
• Native-born Latino youths go much farther in school than do their foreign-born counterparts. Among 16- to 24-year-olds who were born abroad, just 21% are enrolled in high school. Among their native-born counterparts, 38% of second-generation and 32% of third-generation young Latinos are enrolled in high school.
• The high school completion rate (89%) and the college enrollment rate (46%) for second generation Latino youths are similar to those of whites in this cohort, 94% of whom have completed high school and 46% of whom are enrolled in college. However, second generation Latinos who attend college are only about half as likely as white college students to complete a bachelor’s degree (Fry, 2002).

Economic Well-Being

• The household income of young Latinos lags well behind that of young whites and is slightly ahead of young blacks. Poverty rates follow the same pattern: Some 23% of young Latinos live in poverty, compared with 13% of young whites and 28% of young blacks.
• The poverty rate among young Latinos declines significantly from the first generation (29%) to the second (19%). The rate for the third and higher generations is 21%.
• Foreign-born Latino youths are more likely to be working or looking for work than the native born (64% versus 56%) and have lower rates of unemployment (17% versus 23%). Labor market activity and unemployment among foreign-born Latino youths match that of all youth.
• Foreign-born Latino youths are much more likely than their native-born counterparts to be employed in lower-skill occupations. More than half (52%) of all employed foreign-born youths are in food preparation and serving; construction and extraction; building, grounds cleaning and maintenance; and production occupations, compared with 27% of native-born Latino youths. The native born are more dispersed across occupations, including in relativity high-skill occupations.

Gangs, Fights, Weapons, Jail

• About three-in-ten (31%) young Latinos say they have a friend or relative who is a current or former gang member. This degree of familiarity with gangs is much more prevalent among the native born than the foreign born—40% versus 17%.
• The same pattern applies to other risk behaviors explored in the survey. Some 17% of native-born Latino youths say they got into a fight in the past year, compared with just 7% of foreign-born youths. Some 7% of the native born say they carried a weapon in the past year, nearly double the 3% share of foreign born who say the same. And 26% of the native born say they were questioned by police for any reason in the past year, compared with 15% of the foreign born.
• Mexican-heritage young Latinos have more experience with gangs than other young Latinos. More than half (56%) say gangs were in their schools, while just four-in-ten (40%) other young Latinos say the same. In addition, young Latinos of Mexican origin are nearly twice as likely as other young Latinos to say that a friend or a relative is a member of a gang—37% versus 19%.
• About 3% of young Hispanic males (ages 16 to 25) were incarcerated in 2008, compared with 7% of young black males and 1% of young white males. Native-born young male Hispanics are more likely than their foreign-born counterparts to be incarcerated—3% versus 2%.

About this Report

This report is the work of the entire Pew Hispanic Center staff. The overview (Chapter 1) was written by the Center’s Director Paul Taylor, who also served as overall editor. Chapters 2 and 5 were written by Associate Director for Research Rakesh Kochhar. Chapters 4 and 8 were written by Senior Researcher Gretchen Livingston. Chapters 3 and 7 were written by Associate Director Mark Hugo Lopez. Chapter 6 was written by Kochhar and Lopez. Chapter 9 was written by Rich Morin, Senior Editor of the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends project (www.pewsocialtrends.org), and Senior Research Associate Richard Fry. Senior Demographer Jeffrey S. Passel tabulated immigration statistics and provided guidance on the demographic portions of this report. The topline was compiled by Daniel Dockterman and Gabriel Velasco. The report was copy-edited by Marcia Kramer of Kramer Editing Services. It was number checked by Daniel Dockterman, Gabriel Velasco and Wendy Wang.

Lopez took the lead in developing the survey questionnaire, assisted by the colleagues listed above and also by Ana González-Barrera, Jennifer Medina, Cristina Mercado and Kim Parker. The authors also thank González-Barrera for helping to compile demographic statistics and Mercado for helping to coordinate the focus groups and transcribe focus group recordings. Daniel Dockterman and Gabriel Velasco provided outstanding support for the production of the report.

About the Survey

The 2009 National Survey of Latinos was conducted from Aug. 5 through Sept. 16, 2009, among a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of 2,012 Hispanics ages 16 and older, with an oversample of 1,240 Hispanics ages 16 to 25. The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish, on cellular as well as landline telephones. The margin of error for the full sample is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. The margin of error for respondents ages 16 to 25 is plus or minus 4.6 percentage points, and the margin of error for respondents ages 26 and older is plus or minus 4.8 percentage points.

Interviews were conducted for the Pew Hispanic Center by Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS).

A Note on Terminology

The terms “Latino” and “Hispanic” are used interchangeably in this report.

The term “youths” refers to 16- to 25-year olds unless otherwise indicated. In this report, the terms “Latino youths,” “young Latinos” and “young adults” are used interchangeably.

All references to whites, blacks, Asians and others are to the non-Hispanic components of those populations.

“Foreign born” refers to persons born outside of the United States to parents neither of whom was a U.S. citizen. Foreign born also refers to those born in Puerto Rico. Although individuals born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens by birth, they are included among the foreign born because they are born into a Spanish-dominant culture and because on many points their attitudes, views and beliefs are much closer to Hispanics born abroad than to Latinos born in the 50 states or the District of Columbia, even those who identify themselves as being of Puerto Rican origin.

“Native born” or “U.S. born” refers to persons born in the United States and those born abroad to parents at least one of whom was a U.S. citizen.

Unless otherwise noted, this report uses the following definitions of the first, second, and third and higher generations:

First generation: Same as foreign born above. The terms “foreign born,” “first generation” and “immigrant” are used interchangeably in this report.

Second generation: Born in the United States, with at least one first-generation parent.

Third and higher generation: Born in the United States, with both parents born in the United States. This report uses the term “third generation” as shorthand for “third and higher generation.”

Language dominance is a composite measure based on self-described assessments of speaking and reading abilities. Spanish-dominant persons are more proficient in Spanish than in English, i.e., they speak and read Spanish “very well” or “pretty well” but rate their English speaking and reading ability lower. Bilingual refers to persons who are proficient in both English and Spanish. English-dominant persons are more proficient in English than in Spanish.

Recommended Citation

Pew Hispanic Center. “Between Two Worlds: How Young Latinos Come of Age in America,” Washington, D.C. (December 11, 2009).

About the Focus Groups

The Pew Hispanic Center conducted seven focus groups during the summer of 2009 to help inform the development of the survey questionnaire and to ask young Latinos about the issues that are important to them. Mark Hugo Lopez, Cristina Mercado, Ana González-Barrera and Jennifer Medina moderated the focus groups. Focus groups were held in Los Angeles; San Jose, Calif.; Chicago; Orange, N.J.; Silver Spring, Md.; Langley Park, Md.; and the District of Columbia. Diego Uriburu of Identity Inc. of Gaithersburg, Md., helped to organize the Silver Spring and Langley Park focus groups, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus helped to organize the one in Washington, D.C. All groups were composed of Latinos between the ages of 16 and 25. Focus group participants were told that what they said might be quoted in the report, but we promised not to identify them by name. The quotations interspersed throughout the report are drawn from these groups.