Hispanic/Latino Demographics

In a trend that is both a consequence of and contributor to its financial woes, the island’s population is declining at a clip not seen in more than 60 years.

Hispanic growth in the U.S. has slowed in recent years, and the trend continued in 2014, as evidenced by new figures released this week by the Census Bureau.

The number of multiracial Americans is growing nationwide, but in Hawaii, it’s nothing new. The Rainbow state – with its history of attracting immigrants from Asia and other parts of the world to work as farm laborers – stands far above the rest, with nearly one-in-four residents (24%) identifying as multiracial.

It could be a half-century (or longer) before Hispanics become a majority there, according to scaled-back state population projections.

A record 33.2 million Hispanics in the U.S. speak English proficiently. While this share of Hispanics has been growing, the share that speaks Spanish at home has been declining over the past 13 years.

This widespread bilingualism has the potential to affect future generations of Latinos, a population that is among the fastest growing in the nation.

Meanwhile, foreign-born shares among whites and blacks are expected to rise, according to new Census Bureau projections.

More Hispanics are already enrolled in college than ever before and, among those who are, nearly half (46%) attend a public two-year school, the highest share of any race or ethnicity.

A new Census Bureau projection for growth in the Hispanic population projection by 2050 is lower—by nearly 30 million—than earlier population projections published by the bureau.

Just 7% of the nation's 18-to-24 year olds had dropped out of high school in 2013, continuing a steady decline in the nation's dropout rate since 2000, when 12% of youth were dropouts.