Document Type

Report

Publication Date

5-2020

Abstract

Introduction:

The Mexican-origin population was the fastest growing Latino national subgroup in New York City between 1990 and 2015, increasing from about 58,000 to 377,000 people.The growth rate was so above and beyond the rates of expansion among other Latino nationalities, that it seemed as if by 2030 Mexicans would surpass Dominicans and Puerto Ricans to become the largest Latino nationality in the City. However, very quickly after 2015, Mexicans began to leave the City and population contracted to about 323,000 in 2017.

Methods:

All of the data in this report were derived from the raw data files released by the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Surveys for 1990, 2000, 2010, 2015, and 2017 organized and released by IPUMS USA at the University of Minnesota. See Steven Ruggles, Sarah Flood, Ronald Goeken, Josiah Grover, Erin Meyer, Jose Pacas, and Matthew Sobek. IPUMS USA: Version 9.0 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2019. https://doi.org/10.18128/D010.V9.0. The term ‘Mexican’ is used at times to refer to all people of Mexican-origin whether born in Mexico or in the United States.

Discussion:

Foreign-born Mexicans stopped migrating to the City from Mexico or from other areas of the United States and there was an apparent out migration of Mexican families including children born in the U.S. About a third of all Mexicans lived in Brooklyn in 1990 and this was stable to 2017. Educational attainment levels among the Mexican community suggest hope for upward social mobility in the future. Mexican households earned median incomes by 2017 of $54,000 which was slightly higher than Puerto Ricans and Dominicans but much lower than Ecuadorans and Colombians, the five largest Latino nationalities in the City. However, it is unfortunate to note that Mexicans had the highest overall poverty rate among Latino New Yorkers at 29% and the highest childhood poverty rate as well at 42% in 2017.

Comments

For additional information you may contact the Center at 212-817-8438 or by e-mail at clacls@gc.cuny.edu.

Citation information: Bergad, Laird W. (2020). Demographic and Socioeconomic Transformations Among the Mexican-Origin Population of New York City, 1990-2017. New York, NY: Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center and Mexican Studies Institute of the City University of New York.

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