One in four US children is of Hispanic origin

The United States is home to 18.8 million children of Hispanic heritage; in other words, 25% of the country's children are from families with a Hispanic background.

This is an increase of 2.6% from 2010, when they accounted for 23.1%, according to a recent analysis by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Florida is the state with the most significant numerical increase. The Sunshine State added 259,931 Hispanic children in just ten years. Considering the total population of minors, this data represents an increase of 4.9 percentage points.

It is followed by New Jersey, which added 105,575 children of Hispanic heritage in the last decade, and Maryland, which added 89,159 Hispanic children to its population.

Maryland ranks first, however, if one considers the difference between the number of Hispanics in the total population of children in 2010 and the data in 2020. While they used to account for 11% of the total, in the last census, they reached 17.4%, an increase of 6.5 percentage points.

Connecticut shares this top spot with Maryland, also registering an increase of 6.5 points. Rhode Island follows them with 6.2 and New Jersey with an increase of 5.9. The state governed by Ron DeSantis appears in fifth place, with 4.9 points, as mentioned earlier.

Aging faster

According to the Census Bureau's Population Division research, the Hispanic population "aged faster over the past decade" than the non-Hispanic population.

This is due to a decrease in the proportion of the Hispanic population under ten years of age. When taking into consideration the median age -which separates the population into two equal groups according to age, leaving the same number of people above and below it- the Hispanic population aged 2.7 years.

Using the same indicator of median age, the rest of the population only aged 1.5 years.