VivirLatino

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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