More Than Marches: Growing Latino Power is all About the Demographics

Between 2000 and 2007 the nation’s Latino population grew from 35.7 million to 45.5 million, an impressive 27 percent jump. Even more significant was that, in the last two years, 62 percent of this growth has been through births, not immigration. In other words, to those who would rather that the newcomers just go home: Sorry. Too late. This is home!

Are these numbers a good thing or a bad thing? Well, like everything else, it depends.

Writing from my particular vantage point as a 52 year old baby boomer, these Latino numbers look pretty good. It turns out that the average white in America is 40.8 years old and the average Hispanic is 27.8 years old. Dowell Myers points out that currently there are some 23 seniors for every 100 workers. However in 20 years (when I am 72) the ratio will have changed drastically to 41 seniors for every 100 workers! The answer to the old Beatles song about who will feed me when I’m 64 is already clear — Latino immigrants and their children. In addition, undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $7 -8 billion a year into the Social Security Trust Fund — money they rarely collect — and a recent report by the Social Security Administration credits them with reducing the long term deficit by 15 percent. Speaking as an aging boomer, these young Latinos look great to me.”*

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