• The accelerated growth of the Latino population at the national level has also been occurring in North Carolina.

• According to Census estimates released this year, during the past ten years the state's Latino population increased 394 percent to 378,963. Estimates by Dr. Mark Sills of FaithAction Institute in Greensboro, NC, based on birth data supplied by the North Carolina Center for Health Statistics, indicate that Hispanics now constitute approximately 5.4 % of the total population in North Carolina, and show a 442.25% increase over the last ten years. Their figures estimate the total Latino population at 416,147. These estimates only include those who live year round in North Carolina.
  

• North Carolina is the third-fastest growing state in terms of its Latino population in the US.
  

• Five of the thirty U.S. counties that experienced the most rapid growth between 1990 and 1996 were located in North Carolina - Wake, Mecklenburg, Forsyth, Guilford, and Durham (in order of percentage of growth, highest first.) Wake County is the second-fastest growing county in the nation in terms of growth of the Latino population.
  

• The potential for continued growth of the state's Latino population is great. Most of the female Hispanic newcomers are in their peak childbearing years. More than half of the Latino immigrants to North Carolina are between the ages of 18 and 35.
  

• Latinos have provided the backbone for several NC industries. For example, in Mecklenburg County, 75% of construction workers are Latino, over 95% of agricultural workers are Mexican "guest workers" and in Bladen County over 50% of the workers in meat processing plants are Latinos.
  

• Latino-buying power in NC increased from $8.3 million in 1990 to $2.3 billion in 1999.
  

• As a state, North Carolina also benefits form the taxes that are paid by all immigrants.
  

• The economic impact of the Latino population in eastern NC is significant and growing rapidly. The new labor supply has enabled traditional economic sectors such as tobacco, agriculture, food processing and vegetable farming to maintain their importance in the region.

ISSUES

• EDUCATION - According to 2000 Census data, Latinos generally have fewer years of formal education than NC's population as a whole, with only 43% of Latinos having a high school diploma.
• Forty-four percent of Latino young adults born outside the 50 states or the District of Columbia were high school dropouts.

• In North Carolina, immigration status and state tuition are directly related to high Latino dropout rates and education disparities. Many high school students in NC with years in the public school system cannot see a future in higher learning because they do not qualify as a resident for tuition purposes.
  
• The NC Limited English Proficiency (LEP) program receives funds according to a complex formula that provides very little money to have a satisfactory program to teach English to LEP students. Insufficient class time for language learning directly affects scholastic achievement at grade level.

• HEALTH - Latino patients continue to face significant barriers that impede access to appropriate health care, and health care providers have also become overburdened in their efforts to serve North Carolina's changing population. Providers overwhelmingly report that language is the most significant barrier to providing adequate care for the Latino population.
  
• A Latino-accessible non-profit community-based mental health agency located in the Triangle has had a 500% increase in its Latino clients over the last five years.

• LABOR - Current law exempts agriculture employers from providing worker's compensation insurance, unless the employer is regularly employed 10 or more full-time year-round agricultural workers. Agricultural workers have 14% of work-related deaths even though they comprise only 3% of the nation's workforce.

• HOUSING - North Carolina residents are not always aware of their rights or responsibilities as tenants under the state's landlord/tenant law. Latinos are particularly vulnerable to "bad" loans and violations of the Federal Fair Housing Act.

Sources:

US Bureau of the Census 2000
State of the South report (MDC, 200)
Selig Center for Economic Growth (University of Georgia)
El Pueblo, Inc.
East Carolina University's Regional Development Institute for Assistance
National Center for Education Statistics
NC Center for Public Policy Research, 1999

Go Back