One of the biggest lines fed by the anti-immigrant movement is that there are already so many of “us”, that the U.S. can’t afford to school any more of “our” children, and give “us” anymore of “their” jobs. And today I have come across a flurry of stats being released that seem to be all over the place in terms of just how many of “us” there are.

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that: The minority population reached an estimated 104.6 million — or 34 percent of the nation’s total population — on July 1, 2008, compared to 31 percent when the Census was taken in 2000. Nearly one in six residents, or 46.9 million people, are Hispanic, the agency reported.

Even more telling for the future: 44 percent of children younger than 18 and 47 percent of children younger than the age of five are now from minority families.

The quickly expanding Latino population is having a healthy impact on the economy, according to Ken Gronbach, author of “The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Growing Demographic Trend.”

“Latinos have saved our country,” he said. “They represent 14 percent of the population but 25 percent of the live births. The United States is the only western industrialized nation with a fertility rate above the 2.2 percent replacement rate.”

So people should be thanking us no? Well let’s look at some of the areas that are experiencing growth and the reception that growth is getting.

For example, in Maricopa County the figure is up to 31 percent from less than 25 percent at the beginning of the decade. Pima County saw the share of residents who said they are Hispanic go from 29.3 percent in 2000 to more than 33 percent now.

But some of the data suggests that rate of change could accelerate – and sharply.

In Maricopa County, nearly half of those younger than 5 are Hispanic, up from 40 percent in 2000. Pima County, at less than 47 percent at the beginning of the decade, already is up above 51 percent.

And in Yuma County, where half of the residents already are Hispanic, the figure for its youngest residents is more than three quarters.

You know how much they love Latinos in Arizona. Especially in Maricopa County, the home of every Latino’s friend, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

And just who is to thank/blame for this? Us loose Latina women of course!

A record number of unmarried women in the United States are having babies, and the rate is highest among Hispanic women, according to a new report…Eleven percent of unmarried Hispanic women had a baby in 2006, which represents a 20 percent jump from 2002.

Ay pero before people start getting all scared, read the Washington Post.

Deterred by immigration laws and the lackluster economy, the population growth of Hispanics and Asians in the United States has slowed unexpectedly, causing the government to push back estimates on when minorities will become the majority by as much as a decade…Thirty-six states had lower Hispanic growth in 2008 compared with the year before. The declines were in places where the housing bubble burst, such as Nevada and Arizona, which lost construction jobs that tend to attract immigrants…Other decreases in the Hispanic growth rate occurred in new immigrant destinations in the Southeast, previously seen as offering good manufacturing jobs in lower-cost cities compared with the pricier Northeast…According to the latest data, the growth of the Hispanic population slowed from 4 percent in 2001 to 3.2 percent last year.

Via/CNN, East Valley Tribune, Hispanic Business