VivirLatino

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.

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