The Hispanic population has quadrupled in the past four decades. It is also becoming more diverse

The Hispanic American population grew 23% from 2010 to 2020. That is also more than four times higher than the Hispanic population of 15 million in 1980 — the first time the term was implemented in the census count.

Census data also indicates growing demographic variation within this group. Hispanic Americans trace their ethnicity to dozens of countries of origin. Since the terms Latino or Hispanic refer to ethnicity, not race, there are Hispanic Americans in every racial group.

Two-thirds of Hispanic Americans identify as white. In 2019, the latest year for which the racial breakdown of the Hispanic population is available, 39.7 million out of 60.5 million Hispanics identified as white. The second-largest racial group among Hispanics is the “some other race” category. There were 15.5 million people in this group in 2019, representing 26% of all Hispanic Americans. Three million or 5% of Hispanics identified as multiracial.

Learn more about the US Hispanic population here.