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Posts Tagged: Latinos

A New Look at How Latinos are Powering the U.S. Economy: Report

A new report puts a price tag on the Latino population in the United States, and it is over two trillion dollars. This economic power, says the report, would rank as the 7th largest in the world if the Latino GDP (Gross Domestic Product) were its own country.

Headed by University of California, Los Angeles Professor David E. Hayes-Bautista, and Werner Schink, CEO of Latino Futures Research, the report commissioned by the non-partisan group Latino Donor Collaborative estimates the total GDP of the Latino population based on data that is publicly available at the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Labor.

In a discussion with NBC News over the phone, Hayes-Bautista said that most studies on Latino economic power look at Hispanics one-dimensionally, through their spending power. But by looking at Latinos beyond consumption and instead through their economic production, Latinos' contribution to the nation can be seen more as an investment than an expense.

“I've been studying Latinos for over 40 years, and you can point out some amazing things about Latinos, but people just yawn. But if you reframe Latinos in terms investors can understand, by size and growth rate, we can have a better idea of Latinos' importance in the U.S. economy," said Hayes-Bautista, professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the School of Medicine, UCLA.

According to the report, “The U.S. Latino GDP is growing 70 percent faster that the country's non-Latino GDP.”

For instance, 70 percent of the growth in our workforce is Latino. In the 75 years he has reviewed data, said Hayes-Bautista, Latinos have consistently ranked at the top, with the highest labor force participation rates.

Another common misperception around the country, the report finds is that non-U.S. citizen Latinos do not participate in the work force as much as other populations. In fact, male Latino non-citizens have an extremely high work force participation rate, over 90 percent for young mature workers aged 25 to 49.

Poll: 62% unhappy with economy 16:28

Hayes-Bautista has spent his professional career dispelling myths about Latinos, and working in California, first at Stanford and then at UCLA, he has seen how the Hispanic population has changed over the decades. Our perception of Latinos is based on an old model, he explained.

Immigration since the 1990s has effectively ceased being the largest factor in the demographic growth of the Latino population. “Immigrant growth has been fading out, and their kids are taking over, the millennials and post millennials are going to be driving our economy,” he said.

When you look at burgeoning cities throughout the country since the 1970s, Latinos have revitalized or saved those regions from massive decline as the non-Latino white population ages.

Hayes-Bautista said that misperceptions about Latinos evoke policies under false assumptions that ultimately do more harm than good for the nation as a whole.

“Latinos work more hours, work less in the public sector, and have the lowest rates of welfare utilization," Hayes-Bautista said. Yet despite their low relative burden to taxpayers, “their reward is the highest level of poverty in the nation.”

If the U.S. realized how vital Latinos are to the future of the United States, there would be greater investment in education, infrastructure, job training, and health care, rather than a constant flow of negative messaging about gangbangers, Hayes-Bautista said.

The report's takeaway is that the country's economic future depends on the interconnectedness between ethnicities and generations.

“The ability of the baby boomers to retire and use their benefits, such as health care and their investment portfolio," said Hayes-Bautista, "depends on Latinos."

Source: Published originally on nbcnews.com A New Look at How Latinos are Powering the U.S. Economy: Report by by Stephen A. Nuño

Posted on Monday, August 14, 2017 at 7:34 AM
  • Author: www.nbcnews.com by Stephen A. Nuño

Rise in English proficiency among U.S. Hispanics is driven by the young

English proficiency among U.S. Latinos has risen over the past 14 years, an increase almost entirely due to the growing share of younger Hispanics born in the U.S., according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.

When asked about their language use and English proficiency in 2014, some 88% of Latinos ages 5 to 17 said they either speak only English at home or speak English “very well,” up from 73% who said the same in 2000.

And among Latinos ages 18 to 33, the share who speak only English at home or say they speak English “very well” increased from 59% to 76% during this time.

Increasing English use by young Hispanics has been driven in large part by demographics. More Hispanics in the U.S. today were born in the country than arrived as immigrants (the number of newly arrived immigrants from Latin America has been in decline for a decade). For example, 65% of Latinos in 2014 were U.S. born, compared with 60% in 2000. One consequence of this trend is that a greater share of young Hispanics ages 5 to 17 are growing up in households where only English is spoken – 37% in 2014 compared with 30% in 2000. 

By comparison, English proficiency among older Latinos has changed little since 2000. For instance, among Latinos ages 34 to 49, 55% spoke English very well or only spoke English at home in 2014 – nearly unchanged from 2000, when the share was 53%. Among Latinos ages 69 and older, just 43% said they spoke English proficiently in 2014, compared with 42% in 2000.

Even as more Latinos speak English proficiently than in the past, many also speak Spanish. The Pew Research Center analysis shows that 36.7 million Latinos speak Spanish at home, making Spanish the most spoken non-English language in the U.S. Looked at another way, three-in-four (73%) Latinos say they speak Spanish at home.

Despite the rise of English among U.S. Latinos, nearly all say they value the ability to speak Spanish, with 95% saying it is important to them that future generations of U.S. Latinos speak the language. Still, as English use rises, most Latinos say Spanish doesn't define their identity: 71% say speaking Spanish is not necessary to be considered Latino.

You can see a statistical portrait of the nation's Hispanic population here that documents key demographic and economic trends from 1980 to 2014.

Source: Published originally on PewResearchCenter, Rise in English proficiency among U.S. Hispanics is driven by the young by Jens Manuel Krogstad, April 20, 2016.

Posted on Monday, October 3, 2016 at 8:55 AM

Growing gap between younger and older Hispanics

The assimilation of Hispanics into American culture is having an interesting side effect. It's widening the gap between generations, emphasizing the growing differences between the young and old, in a demographic where they often live in the same household.

Younger Hispanics have very different media preferences than their grandparents and even their parents. They have their own unique language preference. And they're much more educated.

This has over time shaped a unique demographic group that advertisers should be courting quite differently than the older one.

A new report from Nielsen takes an in-depth look at the Hispanic demographic, in which these growing differences emerge.

It's a fascinating portrait of a group that will account for “virtually all (93 percent) of the growth of the nation's working-age population between now and 2050.”

Right now there are nearly 57 million U.S. Hispanics. By 2020 that number will balloon to 119 million, or just 60 million shy of the number of non-Hispanic whites, who are on the decline.

Here's a look at three areas where the differences between younger and older Hispanics are most stark.

Language

Language is an age-old struggle for those targeting Hispanics. For years previous to 2000, much of the U.S. Hispanic population were immigrants, and they spoke Spanish, the language of their native country, usually Mexico.

But the vast majority of American Hispanics are now born in this country, and that's led to a language divide.

Nielsen says that among adults 55 and over, 35 percent are Spanish-dominant, compared to a mere 4 percent of those under 18, and 14 percent of Millennials.

It's not just Spanish where the differences come, though. Less than half of 55-and-overs are bilingual, while 58 percent of those under 34 speak both languages.

The takeaway: This gap will continue to grow with greater assimilation and as fewer kids grow up in homes with foreign-born Hispanics.

Media

This is the area where young and old most differ. Hispanic Millennials are voracious consumers of new media. For example, 91 percent use social media compared to 64 percent of those over 35.

Interestingly, young Hispanics' media device ownership closely mimics non-Hispanics rather than Hispanics over 35. So, for instance, 88 percent of Hispanic Millennials have smartphones compared to 86 percent of non-Hispanics and 68 percent of Hispanics over 35.

And there are vast difference between consumption of traditional media such as cable and broadcast, as detailed in the chart below.

The takeaway: When targeting this demographic, it's important to do it by age group to determine which media to use.

Education

Young Hispanics are more educated than their older counterparts, and becoming more so every year.

Sixty-seven percent of Hispanic high school graduates enrolled in college from 2012 to 2014.

“The number of 18-to-24-year-old Hispanics enrolled in a two- or four-year college more than tripled between 1993 and 2013: 2.2 million Hispanics enrolled in 2013 versus 728,000 in 1993. That trend has made Hispanics the largest diversity group on U.S. college campuses,” Nielsen notes.

There are more Hispanics to seek out these opportunities, for sure, but the growth is still stunning.

The takeaway: This will result in a more affluent Hispanic demographic going forward. Already, the number of Hispanic households making $100,000 annually has more than doubled from 2000 to 2014.

This article is part of an ongoing Media Life series entitled “Catching the next big wave: Hispanic media.”  You can read previous stories by clicking here 

Source: Published originally on medialifemagazine.com as Growing gap between younger and older Hispanics, by the editors of Media Life, September 1, 2016

Posted on Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 9:04 AM

Latinos age slower than other ethnicities, UCLA study shows

A UCLA study is the first to show that Latinos age at a slower rate than other ethnic groups. The findings, published in the current issue of Genome Biology, may one day help scientists understand how to slow the aging process for everyone.

“Latinos live longer than Caucasians, despite experiencing higher rates of diabetes and other diseases. Scientists refer to this as the ‘Hispanic paradox,'” said lead author Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “Our study helps explain this by demonstrating that Latinos age more slowly at the molecular level.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Latinos in the United States live an average of three years longer than Caucasians, with a life expectancy of 82 versus 79. At any age, healthy Latino adults face a 30 percent lower risk of death than other racial groups, according to a 2013 study in the American Journal of Public Health.

The UCLA team used several biomarkers, including an “epigenetic clock” developed by Horvath in 2013, to track an epigenetic shift in the genome that's linked to aging. Epigenetics is the study of changes to the DNA molecule that influence which genes are active but don't alter the DNA sequence.

Horvath and his colleagues analyzed 18 sets of data on DNA samples from nearly 6,000 people. The participants represented seven ethnicities: two African groups, African-Americans, Caucasians, East Asians, Latinos and an indigenous people called the Tsimane, who are genetically related to Latinos. The Tsimane live in Bolivia.

When the scientists examined the DNA from blood — which reveals the health of a person's immune system — they were struck by differences linked to ethnicity. In particular, the scientists noticed that, after accounting for differences in cell composition, the blood of Latinos and the Tsimane aged more slowly than other groups.

According to Horvath, the UCLA research points to an epigenetic explanation for Latinos' longer life spans. For example, the biological clock measured Latino women's age as 2.4 years younger than non-Latino women of the same age after menopause.

“We suspect that Latinos' slower aging rate helps neutralize their higher health risks, particularly those related to obesity and inflammation,” said Horvath, who is also a professor of biostatistics at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “Our findings strongly suggest that genetic or environmental factors linked to ethnicity may influence how quickly a person ages and how long they live.”

The Tsimane aged even more slowly than Latinos. The biological clock calculated the age of their blood as two years younger than Latinos and four years younger than Caucasians. This reflects the group's minimal signs of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, obesity or clogged arteries, the researchers said.

“Despite frequent infections, the Tsimane people show very little evidence of the chronic diseases that commonly afflict modern society,” said coauthor Michael Gurven, a professor of anthropology at UC Santa Barbara. “Our findings provide an interesting molecular explanation for their robust health.”

In another finding, the researchers learned that men's blood and brain tissue ages faster than women's from the same ethnic groups. The discovery could explain why women have a higher life expectancy than men.

Horvath and his colleagues next plan to study the aging rate of other human tissues and to identify the molecular mechanism that protects Latinos from aging.

The research was supported by grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Institute on Aging.

Source: Published originally on newsroom.ucla.edu as Latinos age slower than other ethnicities, UCLA study shows by Elaine Schmidt, August 16, 2016

Posted on Tuesday, September 6, 2016 at 7:45 AM

Hispanics’ expectations and planning for long-term services: 5 key points you should know

America, as we know it, is changing. There were 55 million Hispanics in the United States in 2014, accounting for 17.3 percent of the total population. This population will more than double to over 110 million and, as a group, Hispanics will account for 21 percent of the U.S population age 65 and older by 2060. These demographic changes have important implications for meeting the needs and preferences for individuals who need long-term services and supports (LTSS) — assistance with self-care and household tasks — and supporting family caregivers who provide the bulk of this care.

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research recently released a report on Hispanics' attitudes and experiences with LTSS in America. This report is part of a series of studies exploring attitudes and personal experiences with LTSS in the United States. The 2015 study included 1,735 interviews with a nationally representative sample of adults age 40 and older, including oversamples of 419 Hispanics.

Here are five key takeaways from the report:

  1. The majority of Hispanics age 40-plus in the survey anticipate needing help with LTSS — eating, dressing, bathing, cooking, getting around, etc. In fact, 59 percent of Hispanics age 40-plus expect to need LTSS in the future, which is similar to other racial and ethnic groups. Hispanics with prior experience in providing, receiving and financing LTSS were more likely to report needing LTSS in the future relative to those without this experience. Hispanics who rated their health as poor or fair were more likely to expect needing LTSS. 
  2. While a majority of Hispanics age 40-plus expect that they will need care in the future, similar to other racial and ethnic groups, few took the necessary actions to plan for their future LTSS needs. Nearly 6 in 10 Hispanics have done little to no planning, compared with 12 percent that have done a great deal or quite a bit of planning for their future LTSS needs. Nearly half (47 percent) of Hispanics compared with 32 percent of non-Hispanics said they were concerned about not planning enough for their future LTSS needs. 
  3. Educational attainment and income are associated with increased planning for LTSS. Hispanics age 40-plus with more than a high school education are more likely than those with a high school degree to have discussed their LTSS preferences with their families, looked into private long-term care insurance or sought out information on LTSS and other aging issues. Those with household incomes of at least $50,000 are more likely to report having done some planning for their LTSS needs relative to those with less than $50,000. 
  4. Confidence in the ability to pay for the cost of LTSS is of great concern. The typical cost of LTSS per year in a nursing home is about $91,250, and $43,200 for assisted living. The survey found that 40 percent of Hispanics compared with 29 percent of non-Hispanics lacked confidence that they would have the financial resources to pay for their future LTSS needs. 
  5. Hispanics age 40-plus are supportive of several policies designed to reduce the financial burden of LTSS:
    1. Seventy-one percent support tax breaks to encourage savings and 67 percent support tax breaks for purchasing private long-term care insurance.
    2. Sixty-seven percent of Hispanics are supportive of a government-administered long-term care insurance program. 

Hispanics are a growing segment of our population, but this group is not alone in trying to figure out how best to pay for LTSS. These findings point to a broader need to raise awareness about the risk of needing LTSS and why we need a range of innovative and bold solutions to meet people's needs and preferences as they age.

Source: AARP, Hispanics' expectations and planning for long-term services & supports: 5 key points you should know, byJean Accius, April 19, 2016.

Posted on Monday, August 1, 2016 at 9:15 AM

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