Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN Texas According to the Census Bureau there were 308 million people residing in the U.S. in 2010 up 9 from 2000. Overall based on 2009 population estimates Hispanics accounted for more than half (51) of that growth. Hispanic voters are nearly three times more prevalent in states that gained congressional seats and Electoral College votes in the 2010 reapportionment than they are in states that lost seats.
So says an analysis of Census data recently released by the Pew Hispanic Center a project of the Pew Research Center.
Based on averages reflecting congressional gains and losses 15.2 of the eligible voter (U.S. citizens ages 18 or older) population in states that gained seats is Hispanic compared with just 5.4 of eligible voters in those states that lost seats.
With these reapportionment changes Latinos likely will play a larger role in national politics in the coming decade. Two states that gained seats Florida and Nevada have been key swing battlegrounds in recent presidential elections (having voted for the Republican nominee in 2004 and the Democrat in 2008). In both states Latinos are a growing share of eligible voters.
However because many Latinos are either too young to vote or are not U.S. citizens not all of their population growth translates into immediate electoral strength.
Among the nations 48.4 million Hispanics in 2009 a record 20.1 million are eligible to vote. Yet an even greater number are not eligible to vote. Some 15.5 million
Hispanics are U.S. citizens 17 years of age or younger and 12.8 million of all ages are not U.S. citizens.
Even so the number of the Latinos eligible to vote continues to grow.
Since 2000 nearly 6 million more Latinos have become eligible to vote. The bulk of this growth was attributable to the 5 million U.S. born Latino youths nationwide who turned 18 during this past decade.
That translates into an additional half-million U.S. born Latinos coming of age each year -- a pattern that is certain to persist and grow in the coming decades.
The report The 2010 Congressional Reapportionment and Latinos authored by Mark Hugo Lopez Associate Director Pew Hispanic Center and Paul Taylor Director Pew Hispanic Center
is available at the Pew Hispanic Centers website.
The Pew Hispanic Center a project of the Pew Research Center is a non-partisan non-advocacy research organization based in Washington D.C. and is funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
