Census Figures Show Growing Hispanic Population

Hispanic - which includes various nationalities, such as Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and Cubans - workers are often found in many low-paying, labor-intensive industries, according to the report. In fact these workers dominate the landscaping and construction trades in Atlanta and Memphis.

In the article, demographers said the soaring Hispanic population was driven largely by waves of new immigrants, legal and illegal, as well as by an improved ability by census takers to count this group.

The census figures showed that the number of Hispanic people, who have Spanish-speaking ancestry but may belong to any race, escalated to 35.3 million from the 22.4 million recorded in 1990. The 2000 total was about three million more than the Census Bureau had previously estimated, a difference demographers attributed to illegal immigrants, according to the Times.

The growing Hispanic population is a major reason that for the first time since the early 1930s, one of every 10 Americans is foreign born.

While Hispanics are still concentrated in the Southwest, California, Florida and New York, new immigrants from Mexico and Central America have moved to states like North Carolina, Georgia and Iowa, where the Hispanic population was almost nonexistent a decade ago.