Hispanic poverty rate declines in Arkansas
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Just over one-fifth, or 20.4% of Arkansas' Hispanic residents, were living in poverty as of 2022, compared to 16.8% of Arkansas residents overall, per the latest census data.
- That's compared to 21.3% of Hispanic residents and 16.3% of all residents in Arkansas in 2021, and 24.5% of Hispanics and 17.2% of all residents in Arkansas in 2005.
The big picture: The percentage of U.S. Latinos living in poverty has dropped significantly in the past decade but remains above the national average for all groups.
Why it matters: Latinos comprise 19% of the population and are set to be a plurality of the country's population by midcentury. Failure to address systemic economic inequalities may threaten the nation's economic future.
By the numbers: Nationally, 16.8% of Latinos — 10 million — were living in poverty in 2022.
- That's well above the nation's overall poverty rate of 11.5% but below the 2021 Latino poverty rate of more than 25%.
- Latinos in Alabama had the nation's highest poverty rate (27.6%), according to an Axios analysis of census data.
- Montana was second (24.2%), followed by Pennsylvania (23.9%).
Yes, but: Wyoming had the lowest percentage of Latinos living in poverty (10.2%), likely because of the large number of well-paying oil and gas jobs there.
- North Dakota, which also has many oil and gas jobs — and which saw the fastest Hispanic population growth of any state over the last decade — had a Latino poverty rate of 12.5%.
Catch up quick: The percentage of Latinos in poverty ranged in the mid-20s for much of the 1970s but shot up to 29% in the '80s as the population kept growing.
- It hit its highest mark in modern times in 1994 — 30.7% — following the recession of the early 1990s and a spike in new immigration from Mexico after the Mexican peso devaluation crisis.
What they're saying: Poverty is one of the most pressing issues facing Hispanics in the U.S., says José Jurado Vadillo, a research economist at the Seidman Institute, Arizona State University.
- Better access to credit and to quality education would help reduce Latino poverty, Vadillo adds.
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