PRESS RELEASE
Date: Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2006
Contact: Carlos Vargas-Ramos ( <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
[log in to unmask])
Phone: (212) 772-5707
CENTRO POLICY STUDY FINDS THAT U.S. PUERTO RICAN POPULATION GREW NEARLY
THREE TIMES AS FAST AS OVERALL POPULATION
Center for Puerto Rican Studies Researcher Also Finds That Many Puerto
Ricans Live in Counties With Very High Segregation
A new public policy study by the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at
Hunter College (CENTRO) examines patterns of residential settlement and
segregation of Puerto Ricans in the United States and finds fast growth in
the Puerto Rican population in almost all 50 states.
“Florida has become the new epicenter for Puerto Ricans,” said
Carlos Vargas-Ramos, the report’s author and a Centro researcher. “New York
State, on the other hand, is the only state in the union that has lost
Puerto Rican population.”
Some of the major policy findings of Puerto Rican settlement
include:
* The Puerto Rican population in the United States grew at a rate of
69 percent between 1980 and 2000, from two million to 3.4 million. This
growth was almost three times as fast as that of the overall population of
the United States, which grew at 24 percent during those two decades. This
Puerto Rican population growth was fastest during the 1980s (35 percent)
than during the 1990s (25 percent).
* The Puerto Rican population grew in almost every state. Growth took
place in every state between 1980 and 2000, during the 1980s and during the
1990s. The only state where the Puerto Rican population did not grow, but
actually lost population, was New York State during the 1990s. During this
decade New York’s Puerto Rican population declined by three percent.
* Puerto Rican population growth was fastest in states that have not
been locations of traditional settlement. Fast Puerto Rican growth took
place in states such as Nevada, Rhode Island, Florida, Georgia, Arizona,
Tennessee, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Virginia. Puerto Ricans grew
in these mostly Sunbelt states at rates that fluctuated between 300 percent
and 400 percent between 1980 and 2000. The ten fastest growing counties in
the survey were located in Florida (eight) and Pennsylvania (two). Puerto
Rican growth was slowest in states of traditional settlement, such as New
York, New Jersey, Illinois or Hawaii. The slowest growth counties were also
located largely in these states.
* Despite slowed (or negative) growth, Puerto Ricans continue to be
concentrated in Northeastern states such as New York, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Florida is the exception and
has positioned itself as the new epicenter of Puerto Rican settlement in the
United States. Fifteen percent of the Puerto Rican population in the United
States in 2000 was settled in Florida, making the second most Puerto Rican
state, after New York (with 30 percent).
Some of the major policy findings of Puerto Rican segregation include:
* Forty-five percent of Puerto Ricans lived in counties with very high
segregation in relation to non-Hispanic whites (as measured by the index of
dissimilarity) in 2000. Twelve percent of Puerto Ricans lived in counties of
moderate segregation, while only one percent lived in counties with low
segregation. High segregation tended to take place in counties of old
settlement, largely in the Northeast and the Midwest. Low segregation
counties tended to be those counties of new settlement in the Southeast.
* Between 1990 and 2000, segregation from non-Hispanic whites tended
to diminish in counties of old settlement with very high as well as moderate
dissimilarity scores — a positive development. However, between decades,
segregation tended to increase in counties of new settlement where
segregation from non-Hispanic whites was low or moderate. Segregation is
following Puerto Ricans where they are settling anew - a very worrisome
trend.
* In relation to African Americans, Puerto Rican segregation was very
high in 11 counties in 2000, with dissimilarities scores at times exceeding
those for non-Hispanic whites. However, these very high segregation
counties only represented counties of settlement for 18 percent of the
Puerto Rican population. Dissimilarity was moderate in 23 counties, where
21 percent of Puerto Ricans lived, and it was low in 13 counties, where four
percent of Puerto Ricans lived. Between decades, dissimilarity between
African Americans and Puerto Ricans increased in nine counties, while it
diminished in 54 counties.
* Expectedly, Puerto Ricans were not very segregated from other
Latinos in the United States in 2000. At most, Puerto Ricans had moderately
high dissimilarity scores in one county, while scores were moderate in
another seven. These counties with moderate segregation tended to be old
settlement counties for Puerto Ricans. Puerto Ricans lived in relative low
separation from other Latinos in two-thirds of the counties surveyed.
Dissimilarity increased in 19 counties between 1990 and 2000.
“There are counties where Puerto Ricans are seeing increases in residential
segregation,” said Vargas-Ramos. “That’s a somewhat alarming trend.
Segregation can be positive at times by allowing the creation of continuous
districts and possibly achieving some political power. It also provides
ethnic enclaves and to some extent cultural production.”
However, the Centro researcher said he believes the negatives
outweigh the positives. “Given history, highly segregated miajority-minority
neighborhoods they tend to receive worse resources from government or
private resources; that's why there is reason for concern,” he said.
In placing the report in context, Dr. Anthony De Jesús, Interim Director of
the Center for Puerto Rican Studies, states that “while other analyses of
Puerto Ricans demographic trends have focused on the decreasing numbers of
Puerto Ricans in New York City and migration to the sunbelt, Dr.
Vargas-Ramos' analysis provides very specific state and county level data,
which can be extremely useful to policy makers, planners and advocates at
these levels. In addition, comparisons with other racial and ethnic groups
reflect an uncommon level of detail in the research on Puerto Ricans and
reveals important differences in segregations between White, Blacks and
other Latinos.
In a broader perspective, Dr. De Jesús, adds, “this Centro report
demonstrates that Puerto Rican population growth parallels that of Latinos
overall, strongly suggesting that Puerto Ricans contribute significantly to
the overall Latino growth.”
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