Hispanic Population Continues Growth Throughout Missouri 2000-2003
The 2000 population census reported a Hispanic population of nearly 120,000 in 2000 - a population nearly double the 1990 population of 60,000. The Census Bureau 2003 population estimates reveal a 2003 Missouri Hispanic population of just short of 131,000 - an increase of 10.4 percent from 2000-2003. The 2003 estimates indicate that all Missouri counties have at least some Hispanic population and all but 10 Missouri counties have a county Hispanic population of more than 50 persons.
Concentrations of Hispanic Population
Table 1 reports there are 61 counties having a 2003 Hispanic population of between 100 and 1000 and 21 counties in which the Hispanic population exceeds 1,000. The 21 counties each having more than 1,000 Hispanic residents in 2003 had a combined for a total of 109,865 Hispanics in 2003 - 83.9 percent of Missouri's total Hispanic population. Although all Missouri counties have at least some Hispanic population more than 75 percent of the state total reside in one of the 23 metropolitan counties.
Table 1
The greatest concentration of Hispanic population in 2003 was Jackson County having an estimated Hispanic population of 38,911. The Hispanic population in Jackson County increased by more than 10 percent from 2000-2003. Other large concentrations of Hispanics in 2003 included St. Louis County with 15,431, Clay County with 7,587, St. Louis City with 6,939, St. Charles County with 4,934, Jasper County with 4,585 and Greene County with 4,505. Together those seven counties were home to 82,892 Hispanic people in 2003 - 60 percent of total Hispanic population.
Changes in Hispanic Population 2000-2003
| Map 1 click map for larger version 
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Map 1 shows that all but 22 of Missouri counties had some increase in Hispanic population from 2000-2003. There were 20 counties in which the number of Hispanics increased by more than 100. The major concentration of growth were the Kansas City and St. Louis Metro areas, the Columbia, Jefferson City Metro areas in Central Missouri and the Southwest corner of the state which includes Joplin and counties having a high concentration of poultry production and processing. Table 2 shows the biggest numerical gain was in Jackson County with a gain of 3,751 followed by Clay with an increase of 993. Other counties having significant gains included Jasper with 970, St. Louis with 854, St. Charles with 758, Cass with 522 and Pettis with 418.
Table 2 also shows that of the 22 counties having no gain in Hispanic population from 2000-2003 there were six counties in which the population did not change and six counties which declined by less than five persons. There were only three counties in which the decline was greater than 70 - a decline of 195 in Saline County, 183 in Johnson County and 823 in St. Louis City.
Changes in Population of Rural Meat Processing Counties
Although there were nine rural counties which had dramatic gains in Hispanic population during the latter half of the 1990s the Hispanic population of those counties remained relatively stable from 2000-2003. Eight of those nine counties were centers of poultry or swine production and processing. The remaining county of that group was Taney - the location of Branson. The nine counties and their population in 2000 and 2003 are as follows:
| County | 2000 | 2003 |
| Barry | 1,713 | 2,005 |
| Dunklin | 824 | 945 |
| Lawrence | 1,195 | 1,412 |
| McDonald | 2,030 | 2,226 |
| Newton | 1,147 | 1,392 |
| Pettis | 1,527 | 1,945 |
| Saline | 1,050 | 855 |
| Sullivan | 634 | 628 |
| Taney | 962 | 1,127 |
| Total | 11,082 | 12,535 |
This cluster of counties gained at about the same rate as the state total Hispanic population 10.4 percent vs. 13.1 percent.
| Detailed Tables of Hispanic Population Change | ||
| The following links provide detailed tables of Hispanic Population in Missouri. Some are in both HTML and Adobe Acrobat (PDF) formats. | ||
| All Missouri Counties | ||
| Hispanic Population in Missouri, 2000-2003 - By County with State Totals | HTML | |
| Missouri Only | ||
| Missouri Hispanic Population by Number of Counties by Population Size, 2000 to 2003 | GIF | |
This file last modified Thursday May 07, 2009, 16:03:43
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