PRESS RELEASE
Date: Tuesday,
Sept. 26, 2006
Contact: Carlos
Vargas-Ramos ([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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