Arizona’s hispanic population rose by 46%

Arizona’s hispanic population continued to drive growth in the state in the past decade, but not quite at the sizzling pace it showed in the previous 10 years. During the census count which began in 2010, hispanics made up nearly 30% of the state’s 6.4 million residents. This is up more than 25% since the 2000 census. That’s a 46% growth rate for the decade; from 1990 to 2000, the Hispanic population increased by 88%.

In 2009, the Census Bureau and state commerce department estimated that roughly 31% of the state’s residents were hispanic. But the estimates were off by the most in the state’s major urban areas of Pima, Pinal and Maricopa counties, said longtime Arizona State University economics and demographer researcher Tom Rex.

“There’s lots of things that may have caused all that, but clearly the thought was how much of the influx of Hispanics was into the major urban areas,” Rex said. “Therefore it would make sense that the combination of the recession and the employers sanctions law bear that out.”

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Yet the white population fell to less than 58% from nearly 64% in 2000, and put Arizona in the No. 2 spot in the nation for growth, behind Nevada. Arturo Vargas, executive director for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials said, “If not the majority, certainly the most significant share of the state’s population growth itself is due to the increase of its Hispanic population. “In Arizona for example, Latinos accounted for nearly half of that state’s overall population increase.”

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And for those under the age of 18, in Arizona, it’s 43%. Arizona’s accelerated growth rate slowed with the mid-decade housing crisis, but the state still grew faster than any other except Nevada. These new figures show that Pinal was Arizona’s fastest-growing county between 2000 and 2010, with the town of Maricopa leading with a giant 4,000 percent population increase.

Pinal County grew by 109%, from 179,727 to 375,770. Other counties that showed large growth were Mohave with 29% and Yavapai with 26%, Maricopa with 24% and Santa Cruz with 23.6%.

Greenlee in southeastern Arizona was the only county to lose residents, which lost from 8,547 to 8,437. What does all of this mean in political terms?

The breakdown will be used by an independent redistricting commission to draw nine congressional districts and 30 state legislative districts. Each congressional district must contain about 710,000 people. Arizona earned its ninth seat in the U.S. House of Representatives because of a population surge that added 1.26 million residents to the state in the last decade.