Latino Population Is Surging
Douglas Montero, New York Post, October 24, 2008
The metro area’s Latino population has increased in every borough except Manhattan, where a small percentage of Hispanics has departed, a new study shows.
The burgeoning Latino population has spread to Staten Island, Long Island and Westchester County, all of which experienced double-digit increases, according to a report by the Pew Hispanic Center of Washington, DC.
The survey, which provides a county-by-county breakdown of Latino growth and migration trends throughout the country, also shows the city’s Hispanic population grew by 5.4 percent, to 2.27 million in 2007 from 2.16 million in 2000.
The five boroughs have the second largest concentration of Latinos in the nation behind Los Angeles County, which has 4.67 million Hispanics, the study shows.
But the most startling statistic is Latino flight from Manhattan, which dipped 4 percent, according to the study. The borough leads the nation’s counties in Latino-population decline, with a loss of 17,377, beating out Orleans Parish in Louisiana, which saw 4,070 Hispanics leave after Hurricane Katrina.
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He [Moises Perez, the director of the Manhattan based Alianza Dominicana] said Dominicans are leaving upper Manhattan and settling in The Bronx, which now has more Dominicans than the Heights.
A demographer from the city Planning Department said he believes the Pew census data is skewed because it doesn’t include the flood of illegal Latino immigrants concentrated in Spanish Harlem and other parts of Manhattan.
