Border & Immigration

Hispanic Population Growth Fuels U.S. Increase

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter

Published March 24, 2011 at 3:07 PM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

A new report by the Pew Hispanic Center says Hispanics accounted for more than half of the nation's population growth in the last decade.

A new report by the Pew Hispanic Center says Hispanics accounted for 56 percent of the country's growth in the last decade.

During that time, the U.S. Hispanic population grew by 43 percent and the group now makes up more than 16 percent of the nation's population.

D'Vera Cohn is a Pew Researcher who wrote the report.

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She says the number of Latino children also shot up. Nearly one in four children in the U.S. are Latino. In California, more than half of children are Latino.

"So, the schools will be seeing this change in their day to day workings. Eventually, of course, these children will grow up and become a voting force in the country," said Cohn.

In all Southwest Border states, the Hispanic population grew by at least 25 percent. Arizona logged the largest growth in its Hispanic population, 46 percent. Hispanics now make up nearly a third of the state's population.

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Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

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