INTRODUCTION

This report presents data on the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the Hispanic population in the United States. The Bureau of the Census collected this information in the March 1989 supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS). Data shown in this report reflect new processing and tabulation procedures. See appendix B for a brief discussion of these new procedures.

This is the first report in the annual series of CPS reports on the Hispanic population to present data for Hispanic households on urban and rural residence, tenure, availability of telephone, and income.

HIGHLIGHTS

• The Hispanic population, which totalled 20.1 million in March 1989, continued to grow at a rapid pace, about 5 times as fast as the rate experienced by the non-Hispanic population since 1980.

Hispanic households were more likely to live in urban areas than non-Hispanic households. In March 1989, about 92 percent (± 0.8)1 of Hispanic households were in urban areas, compared with 73 percent (0.4) of non-Hispanic households.

• Hispanic households were less likely to live in homes they owned or were purchasing in 1989 than were non-Hispanic households, 42 percent (± 1.4) and 66 percent (0.4), respectively.

• According to the March 1989 CPS, Hispanic households were less likely to have a phone in their home than were non-Hispanic households (82 percent 1.1 and 94 percent ± 0.2, respectively).

• Hispanics tend to marry Hispanics. For example, in March 1989, 85 percent (± 1.3) of Hispanic husbands in married-couple families were married to a Hispanic wife, and 82 percent (± 1.4) of Hispanic wives in married couples had a Hispanic husband. • Hispanic families were more likely to be poor than non-Hispanic families. Based on 1988 income, 23.7 percent (1.5) of Hispanic families fell below the poverty level, compared with 9.4 percent (± 0.3) of non-Hispanic families.

1The number in parenthesis is equal to 1.6 times the standard error of the estimate. This gives the 90-percent confidence interval when added to and subtracted from the estimate. A complete discussion of confidence intervals and standard errors is given in Appendix C, "Source and Accuracy of Estimates."

POPULATION GROWTH AND COMPOSITION

NOTE: CPS estimates of the Hispanic origin population shown in this report are inflated to national totals using weights derived from independent post-census estimates. These postcensus estimates of the Hispanic population were used to eliminate fluctuations in the CPS estimates of the size of the total Hispanic population resulting from sampling variability. In addition, the independent estimates provide a post-census time series of data comparable with the 1980 census information for Hispanics.

Independent estimates were developed only for the size of the total Hispanic population and not for subgroups of the Hispanic population because required information on births, deaths, immigration, etc., for each of the individual Hispanic subgroups is not available. Consequently, figures on the number of persons in each of the Hispanic subgroups, as well as the social and economic characteristics shown in this report, remain subject to sampling error and random annual fluctuations.

The Hispanic population continued to grow at a rapid pace, about 5 times as fast as the rate experienced by the non-Hispanic population.2 By March 1989, the Hispanic civilian noninstitutional population had reached 20.1 million, an increase of 39 percent over the April 1980 census figure. During the same period, the corresponding non-Hispanic population grew by 8 percent. Based on the March 1989 estimate, Hispanics now constitute 8.2 percent of the U.S. total population (table A). Immigration to the United States was an important part of Hispanic population growth. It contributed about one-half of the growth of the Hispanic population, compared with 21 percent of the growth experienced by the non-Hispanic population.

The Hispanic population was composed of persons in the following origin subgroups:

12.6 million (± 174,000) Mexican
2.3 million (± 116,000) Puerto Rican 3
1.1 million (± 81,000) Cuban

2.5 million (± 120,000) Central and South American 1.6 million (± 97,000) Other Hispanic origin4

2The population universe in the March 1989 CPS is the civilian noninstitutional population of the United States and members of the Armed Forces in the United States living off post or with their families on post, but excludes all other members of the Armed Forces. 3See Appendix B, "Changes in Processing Procedures and Research on Data Fluctuations."

*Unless otherwise noted, persons reporting "Other Hispanic" origin are those whose origins are from Spain, or they are Hispanic persons identifying themselves generally as Hispanic, Spanish, SpanishAmerican, Hispano, Latino, etc.