Hispanics are losing steam in the U.S. despite political talk about their "dominant culture" and declared desire for taco trucks on every corner.
After the economic downturn, Asians took the title of America's fastest growing population from Hispanics, according to a new report from The Pew Research Center.
The Great Recession put a damper on immigration from Latin America and cooled Latino fertility rates, according to Pew.
Pew found that 38 counties with at least 1,000 Hispanics in 2014 saw a dip in their Latino populations. Eight of those counties were in Colorado, with many of the rest in New Mexico and Texas.
Some of the Colorado counties seeing a decline are in the southern part of the state and represent some of the oldest areas of Hispanic settlement, going back to Spanish colonial times. They're also in rural areas without strong economic growth.
For the report, Pew looked at U.S. Census data from 2000 to 2014. Like the federal government, researchers use Hispanic and Latino interchangeably to mean people of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American or other Spanish culture or origin.
Together Hispanics and Latinos have gathered more electoral influence and attention from companies in recent years.
But Pew warns that the slowdown in Latino population growth and dispersion may slow these trends in coming years.
Before you start crying for Argentinians — and other Latinos — keep in mind Latinos still make up almost 18 percent of the county and accounted for more than half (52 percent) of the nation’s population growth between 2007 and 2014.
Colorado has about 1.1 million Hispanic residents and is among the top 10 states with the largest Hispanic populations behind California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Arizona and New Jersey.
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