The Hispanic population is geographically concentrated in certain states, and Hispanic public school enrollments mirror these residence patterns. More than half (52%) of all Hispanic students are educated in California and Texas. Hispanic students are concentrated in the “established” Hispanic states,3 which besides California and Texas are Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. About three-quarters of all Hispanic students live in these nine states.

Three-quarters (76%) of native-born Hispanic students attend school in the “established” Hispanic states mentioned above. An additional 13% live in the “new” Hispanic states of Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.

Foreign-born Hispanic students tend to be educated in slightly different states than those who are native born. Less than half (46%) of Hispanic foreign-born public school students live in Texas and California, and only two-thirds (66%) reside in the nine “established” Hispanic states. They are more likely than their native-born counterparts to live in the “new” Hispanic states mentioned above (21%) as well as the “emerging” Hispanic states of Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin (8%).