Hispanic Populations and Their Residential Patterns
in the Metropolis

John R. Logan, Director
Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research
University at Albany

May 8, 2002

What we call the Hispanic population in America is actually a mixture of many different groups from around the world whose common link is language. As Hispanics move towards becoming the nation’s largest minority (up from 22.4 million to 35.3 million in the last decade alone), significant changes are occurring in their composition. The Mumford Center pointed out in an earlier report (“The New Latinos” - September 2001) that the fastest growth is not in the traditionally largest Hispanic groups (Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, or Cubans), but among New Latinos - people from the Dominican Republic and a diverse set of countries in Central American (such as El Salvador) and South America (such as Colombia). Their number has more than doubled since 1990, from 3.0 million to 6.1 million. Although Cubans are still the third largest single Hispanic group in the United States, (1.3 million), there are now nearly as many Dominicans (1.1 million) and Salvadorans (also 1.1 million). There are more New Latinos than Puerto Ricans and Cubans combined, and these new groups are growing much more rapidly.

Hispanics are not all alike. In reality, those from South America and Cuba have very different class backgrounds than those from Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Central America. While Mexicans are still highly concentrated in the Southwest, Hispanics in Florida are predominantly Cuban, and in the Northeast, Puerto Rican. Most Dominicans live in the New York metropolis, but Salvadorans are found in many diverse locations - Long Island, NY; Houston, TX; Washington, DC; and Los Angeles, CA.

This report summarizes what is known about the social backgrounds and locations of each major Hispanic group. We emphasize the differences among them at the neighborhood level in the extent of their segregation from whites and blacks, and the degree to which they form separate residential enclaves in the metropolis.

More complete information on the size and residential pattern of Hispanic groups for every metropolis in 1990 and 2000 is available on the Mumford Center web page: http://brownS4.dyndns.org/cen2000_s4/HispanicPop/HspPopData.htm