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Puerto Rican Numbers (If not Power) Keeps
Growing in the United States
08:23 H | Topics: Cities - Puerto Rico - Society - States
One of the largest growing sectors of the Latino population in
the United States isn't coming in from Mexico as Pat Buchanan and
friends would like you to believe, but rather are U.S. citizens.
According to a public policy study by the Center for Puerto Rican
Studies at Hunter College (CENTRO) released yesterday, the U.S.
Puerto Rican population grew nearly three times as fast as the overall
population.
Puerto Rican population growth was fastest in states that have
not been locations of traditional settlement. Fast Puerto Rican
growth took place in states such as Nevada, Rhode Island, Florida,
Georgia, Arizona, Tennessee, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Virginia.
Puerto Ricans grew in these mostly Sunbelt states at rates that
fluctuated between 300 percent and 400 percent between 1980 and
2000. The ten fastest growing counties in the survey were located
in Florida (eight) and Pennsylvania (two). Puerto Rican growth was
slowest in states of traditional settlement, such as New York ,
New Jersey , Illinois or Hawaii . The slowest growth counties were
also located largely in these states.
The study also revealed that Puerto Ricans tend to segregrate themselves
within the communities they settled in.
Forty-five percent of Puerto Ricans lived in counties with very
high segregation in relation to non-Hispanic whites (as measured
by the index of dissimilarity) in 2000. Twelve percent of Puerto
Ricans lived in counties of moderate segregation, while only one
percent lived in counties with low segregation. of new settlement
where segregation from non-Hispanic whites was low or moderate.
Segregation is following Puerto Ricans where they are settling anew
- a very worrisome trend. In relation to African Americans, Puerto
Rican segregation was very high in 11 counties in 2000, with dissimilarities
scores at times exceeding those for non-Hispanic whites. Expectedly,
Puerto Ricans were not very segregated from other Latinos in the
United States in 2000.
Segregation was looked at in the study as both a positive and a
negative force. On the positive end of the scale, segregation can
create pockets of political and cultural power but more often than
not ethnically segregated areas get the worst resources from both
the public and private sector.
Via / El Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos
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