San Diego has more Mexican restaurants than most
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San Diego County is home to more Mexican restaurants than any other county in the U.S., except Los Angeles and Harris counties (Houston, Texas).
Driving the news: About 99% of Americans live near at least one Mexican eatery, a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from SafeGraph found.
- San Diego County has 1,712, which is about five restaurants per 10,000 residents.
Why it matters: The proliferation of Mexican restaurants — once staples only of the Southwest and parts of the Midwest — highlights the growing influence of Mexican Americans on U.S. culture and the effects of increased migration from Mexico over the last 30 years, Axios' Russell Contreras writes.
The big picture: About 37.2 million people in the U.S. trace their ancestry to Mexico, making Mexican Americans by far the largest Hispanic origin group in the nation, per Pew.
- They represent 11% of the total U.S. population and could surpass Black Americans, who comprise 12.5% of the nation's population, in the next decade.
Zoom in: About 35% of San Diego's population is Latino or Hispanic, and the vast majority (87%) of those people are of Mexican origin, a recent report shows.
Details: Mexican restaurants are found in a majority of U.S. counties, but make up a substantial share of all restaurants in states that border Mexico, the study found.
- They account for 22% of all restaurants in New Mexico, 20% in Texas, 18% in Arizona and 17% in California.
- Los Angeles County alone is home to more than 5,400 Mexican restaurants, or 30% of the nation's total.