An Overview of the Age of the 2000 Missouri Hispanic Population: Much Younger than Rest of Missouri
The 2000 population of Missouri Hispanics was 118,000, which is 2 percent of Missouri's total population. The Hispanic population nearly doubled during the 1990s from 61,000 in 1990 to 118,000 in 2000. Most of the Hispanic population occurred because many more Hispanics moved to Missouri during the 1990s than moved away. Those who moved to Missouri were also generally younger than the Missouri non-Hispanic population.
Graph 1
Graph 1 shows the percent of Hispanics in each of eight age groups in the first column and the comparable percent of the rest of Missouri's population in each age group in the second column. The graph shows that 11.7 percent of all Hispanics in 2000 were less than 5 years old and 24.3 percent were school age - ages 5-17. Adding the two ages groups (11.7 plus 24.3) shows that 36.0 percent of Missouri's Hispanic population in 2000 was less than 18 years of age. That compares with only 25.3 percent of the rest of Missouri population under age 18.
The same is true for young adults (age 18-24 and 25-34). In 2000, 33.6 percent of the Hispanic population was in the 18-34 age range, compared with only 22.6 percent of the rest of Missouri's population.
Thus, in 2000 nearly 70 percent (69.6 percent) of the Missouri Hispanic population was young adults and children (from age 0 to 34). In contrast, only 47.9 percent of the non-Hispanic Missouri population was comprised of children and young adults.
Correspondingly, 52.1 percent of Missouri's general population was age 35 and above, compared with only 31.4 percent of Hispanics. The relative differences are greater for the population age 55 and older. In 2000, the non-Hispanic Missouri population age 55 and over accounted for 22.9 percent of total population compared with only 8.7 percent of the Hispanic population in the 55 and over age group.
Change in Age within the Hispanic Population 1990-2000
As shown on Graph 2, Missouri's Hispanic population became somewhat younger during the 1990s. The percent of Hispanic population under age 5 increased from 10.5 in 1990 to 11.7 percent in 2000. The population age 5-17 increased from 24.0 percent to 24.3 percent, and population age 18-24 increased from 13.4 percent to 15.2 percent. Missouri's Hispanic population age 24 and below increased from 47.9 percent of Hispanic population in 1990 to 51.2 percent in 2000.
Graph 2
Also, during the 1990s, the Hispanic population aged 55 and over declined from 12.0 percent in 1990 to 8.7 percent in 2000.
A major reason for these changes is that the Hispanic people who moved to Missouri during the 1990s were generally younger than the Hispanic population that was already here. For example, the concentrations of Hispanic population in Kansas City and St. Louis City and County were well-established communities and neighborhoods in 1990. There were 2,156 Hispanics age 65 and over in Kansas City and St. Louis City and County in 1990 and 2,986 of that age and in those counties in 2000. Kansas City and St. Louis had 63 percent of Missouri's Hispanic population over age 65 in 1990 and the same percentage (63 percent) of the Hispanic population in that age group in 2000.
The Hispanic population age 65 and over increased by 38.5 percent (860 more persons) in Kansas City and St. Louis during the 1990s, while the Hispanic population in that age group in the rest of the state increased by only 476 people.
The age distribution of the Hispanic population in Kansas City and St. Louis City and County is very similar to the age distribution of non-Hispanic Missourians. The age distribution of the 2000 Hispanic population across the rest of the state is much younger.
Implications
Although Hispanics only account for 2 percent of Missouri's 2000 population, the percent of Hispanic children enrolled in school has increased during the 1990s and will undoubtedly continue to increase during the coming decade. In 1990, there were 6,131 Hispanic students enrolled in Missouri public schools. Enrollment of Hispanics reached 16,269 in 2000 - an increase of more than 165 percent.
This file last modified Thursday May 07, 2009, 14:36:55
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