Latino Poverty in U.S. Counties: From the Great Recession to the Post-Pandemic

Rogelio Saenz, University of Texas at San Antonio
Christina Quintanilla-Muñoz, University of Texas at San Antonio

Over the last half century, the Latino population has been the major driver of the U.S. demography. Currently, approximately 90 percent of the annual population growth is due to growth in the Latino population. Yet, Latinos lag behind with respect to socioeconomic status compared to Whites and other groups of color. This research paper uses the human capital and race perspectives to understand variations of the Latino family poverty rate in U.S. counties with more than 250 Latino families. Data from the 2008 to 2022 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates for U.S. counties to examine the relationship between demographic and socioeconomic factors related to the Latino poverty rate. Data for Blacks and Whites are included for comparative purposes. The current results based on 2022 show that family structure, educational attainment, work, and demographic factors are associated with Latino poverty. Of particular interest, the percentage of Latinos who are immigrants and counties that are the most rural have the highest poverty rates. Further analysis will involve data for the 2008 to 2021 periods. The paper concludes with a discussion of the policy implications of the results of the analysis.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Human Capital, Education, and Work, Families, Unions and Households, Population, Shocks and Pandemics

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