Want To Reduce Latino Population Growth? Then Educate Them and Give Them the Reproductive Rights They Want and Deserve

There is no question that the Latino, mostly Mexican-origin, community, is  prolific.  However this is not all out of choice, women's choice.  For example, cuts to women's health care in the name of ending abortion only make us more so.  Family research also shows that family size is correlated with educational attainment.  Stated differently, the more education that women get, the fewer children they have.  I myself wanted to have more than two children, but getting a Ph.D. and being on the tenure track during this time period when my productive and reproductive years overlapped structured that option out.

And of course, more education results in greater resources, knowledge, and opportunities that not only expand women's sense of what is possible in the world beyond motherhood, but provides the means, as well, for controlling the number of births they have.  

Want to reduce Hispanic population growth?  Then educate them and give them the reproductive rights they want and deserve.

Angela Valenzuela

Hispanic Texans on Pace to Become Largest Population Group in State by 2022

 ALEXA URA, TEXAS TRIBUNE AND  NAEMA AHMED, TEXAS TRIBUNE JUNE 23, 2018

For many years, the prospect that Hispanics would become the state’s largest population group has been a question of “when” and not “if.”

For many years, the prospect that Hispanics would become the state’s largest population group has been a question of “when” and not “if.”

With growth among the Hispanic population in Texas continuing to easily outpace growth among white Texans, it’s likely the state will reach that demographic milestone as soon as 2022. That’s according to the state demographer and new population estimates released Thursday by the    U.S. Census Bureau.

The new figures, which account for the state’s population growth through July 2017, reflect the extent to which the white population growth rate  pales in comparison to growth among Texans of color since 2010 – a disparity that has set the Hispanic community on its way to becoming a plurality of the state’s population.

Hispanics alone have been behind more than half of the state’s growth since 2010. The Hispanic population increased from 9.7 million in 2010 to 11.1 million last year. Meanwhile, the white population has only increased by about 458,000 people.

Strikingly, Texas has gained almost four times as many Hispanic residents as white residents since 2010. And the increase in the number of Asian Texans, who make up a tiny share of the total population, has almost caught up with the increase in white Texans in that same time period.

The explosive growth among the Hispanic community has been widespread, with population gains occurring in all but a few of the state’s 254 counties.

Meanwhile, the white population in neighboring Dallas County is shrinking. Among the state’s five biggest counties, Dallas is the only county where  the white population has fallen below 2010 levels. In 2017, Dallas County’s white population dropped to about 764,200 from about 787,150 in 2010.

Nationally, Texas held onto its years-long lead as the state that has experienced the largest annual numeric increase of Hispanic residents since 2010.

The state also continued to be home to counties with some of the highest shares of Hispanic residents. Starr County in the Rio Grande Valley for years has held onto the top spot in the nation with a population that’s 96.3 percent Hispanic.