By: tito guerrero iii  (Page 3/7)

In 2000, 43.5 percent of Hispanics lived in the West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) and 32.8 percent lived in the South (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia). The Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont) accounted for 14.9 percent of the Hispanic population and the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin) accounted for 8.9 percent (United States Census Bureau).

In 2000, half of all Hispanics lived in just two states: California and Texas. Also, 76.8 percent of all Hispanics lived in the seven states of California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Arizona, and New Jersey. However, the state in which Hispanics comprised the highest proportion of the total population was New Mexico, at 42.1 percent. (United States Census Bureau).

When compared to the rest of the population within the United States, the Hispanic population is relatively young. For example, while 25.7 percent of the U.S. population was under 18 years of age in 2000, 35.0 percent of Hispanics were less than age 18. The median age for Hispanics was 25.9 years while the median age for the entire U.S. population was 35.3 years. Mexicans had a median age of 24.2 years, Puerto Ricans 27.3 years, Central Americans 29.2 years, Dominicans 29.5 years, South Americans 33.1 years, Spaniards 36.4 years, Cubans 40.7 years, and all other Hispanics had a median age of 24.7 years (United State Census Bureau).

Educational attainment

Experts have predicted that the traditional college-age populations will grow by 16 percent between 2000 and 2015, and that, of these potential new students, 80 percent will be non-White and nearly half will be Hispanic. However, according to the Educational Testing Service (ETS): “Among minority groups, only Asian youth will be attending college in numbers roughly proportionate to their share of the U.S. college-age population. African American and Hispanic students will continue to lag behind” (Business –Higher Education Forum).

Overall, Hispanics trail both African Americans and Whites in rates of high school completion. While African Americans achieved gains during the past two decades, reducing the gap with Whites in high school completion rates, these rates for Hispanics fluctuated considerably during the same period. In 1998, 73.4 percent of African Americans aged 18 to 24 completed high school; a decline of 1.3 percent from the previous year. It appears that African American men were the main reason for the decrease, as their high school completion rate declined by nearly 4 percentage points from the previous year. The Hispanic high school completion rate declined slightly in 1998 to approximately 60 percent. However, because of earlier progress made in this area, the high school completion rate for Hispanics was slightly higher in 1998 than in 1994 (Harvey).