Births Fuel USA Hispanic Growth

The Hispanic baby boom is transforming the demographics of small-town America in a dramatic way. Some rural counties where the population had been shrinking and aging are growing because of Hispanic immigration and births and now must provide services for the young.

"In all of the uproar over immigration, this is getting missed," says Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. "All the focus is on immigration, immigration, immigration. At some point, it's not. It's natural increase."

This natural increase — more births than deaths — is accelerating among Hispanics in the USA because they are younger than the U.S. population as a whole. Their median age is 27.4, compared with 37.9 overall, 40.8 for whites, 35.4 for Asians and 31.1 for blacks.

Because they are younger and likely to have more children, Hispanics are having an impact that far outlasts their initial entry into the country.

From 2000 to 2007, the Hispanic population grew by 10.2 million — 58.6% from natural increase. The total U.S. population grew 20.2 million, about 60% from natural increase, in that period. About 6.8 million Hispanics were born and 812,000 died, according to Johnson's research of data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

In some established immigrant gateways such as Los Angeles and Chicago, all the Hispanic growth comes from natural increase, according to Johnson's analysis.

The impact on rural America is seen in areas such as Bureau and Putnam counties, Ill., where dentist Ernesto Villalobos treats a growing Hispanic population. Since the counties' health department dental clinic in the rural part of north-central Illinois hired the Spanish-speaking Villalobos about three years ago, the number of patients has grown from 3,000 to 8,000.

"We tease around here that it's Spanish day because that's all we hear in the hallway," says Diana Rawlings, public health administrator for the two counties.

Since the agency's dental clinic in a rural part of north-central Illinois hired a Spanish-speaking dentist about three years ago, the number of patients has grown from 3,000 to 8,000.

"The Hispanic community is getting more and more comfortable coming here, and that's the goal of public health," Rawlings says. "We do see a lot of children in our dental clinic."

The arrival of Hispanics in remote and rural areas far from traditional gateways has been going on for years. What's new is a pronounced demographic shift unfolding because these young immigrants are having children. Births outnumber deaths, and the population increases.

Though it's happening everywhere immigrants are settling, the impact is more striking in smaller, rural communities that have not grown or have been shrinking because young people have been leaving and those who stay are older and dying.

The contrasting trend will reshape the social and cultural fabric of rural America for decades, according to new research.

"Substantial natural increase among new Hispanic immigrants has dampened or even offset recent … population declines in rural communities," says Kenneth Johnson, co-author of research published in a demographic journal this month. "Hispanic population growth has taken on a demographic momentum of its own. Restricting immigration will not end the browning of America."

Bureau County has had a net population loss since 1980, but the Hispanic population is growing, attracted by food processing plants there and in neighboring counties.

Now, more than half of the growth in Hispanics comes from births.

"In our community, of the people who have lived here since the 1950s, the majority are elderly citizens," says Don Bosnich, president of Depue Village. "Of the Hispanic population, I would guess that 75% of them are new."

Grady County, Ga., rich with fields that grow peanuts, soybeans and corn on the Florida state line, grew about 4% to 24,719 from 2000 to 2006. The number of Hispanics almost doubled to 2,382, according to Census estimates.

"It's put a strain on our emergency services," says Rusty Moye, county administrator, who says the number of Hispanics is underestimated. "They're actually using our emergency rooms as their health clinics because when they get sick, they have no doctor. They're all indigents."

For a nation bracing to support 79 million Baby Boomers in their old age, the growing and younger population of Hispanics should be viewed as economic salvation, says Dowell Myers, demographer at the University of Southern California and author of Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America.

"Children are always a fiscal burden, yet children are also the lifeblood of every community," he says. "What's killing Japan and threatening the economic future of Europe is that they don't have enough kids, and that's what's depriving these rural areas in America."

The upward mobility of immigrants is not visible until they have been here awhile, Myers says. His research shows substantial progress the longer they're in the USA. As Baby Boomers age, "immigration may be the best way to get needed workers, taxpayers and home buyers," he says.

The growth of Hispanic populations in parts of the country where few lived previously has intensified this decade. From 2000 to 2005, 221 counties would not have grown except for Hispanics, according to research by Johnson and Daniel Lichter at Cornell University. Their findings are reported in this month's Population and Development Review, a demographic journal published by the Population Council.

For declining counties, many in the Great Plains, the growth in young Hispanics may be the only way out of a population spiral.