The rate of Hispanic women having children in the national capital region is outpacing the rate that black and white women are having kids, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics released Tuesday.
The numbers are another indication from the Census that the Hispanic population in the region is growing more quickly than the white and black populations. Figures released earlier this year also showed a far greater number of Hispanic children under 5 years old than white and black children.
These numbers do not indicate Hispanics will overtake blacks as the largest minority population in the region, said Stephen Fuller of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason, or that blacks and Hispanics will combine to overtake the white population, making the majority the minority. They do indicate, however, that there are many young Hispanic immigrants in the area who are having children, and that the white and black populations are beginning to share characteristics like an increasing age and decreasing procreation rate.
“The immigrants are young,” said Fuller. “They’re of child-bearing age, they’re less educated and they’re Catholic,” and are less likely to use birth control, he said.
According to the Census, 5.2 percent of 760,860 white women aged 15 to 50 in the region had children in the last year. Of the 387,719 black women in this group, 5.6 percent had children.
By comparison, of the 156,355 Hispanic women in this group, 8.3 percent had children. This is more than two percentage points more than black women, and nearly three more than white women.
These same trends can be seen nationally, with 5.4 percent of white women, 6 percent of black women and 8 percent of Hispanic women having children in the last year.
Fuller said these numbers also indicate the place of children in Hispanic families, but the trend is likely to change.
“Hispanic cultures in other places show similar traits,” he said. “Every other immigrant group has changed to be more like the people who were already here. [Assimilation] continues until the differences [between ethnic groups] are smaller.”
