Hispanic Heritage Month Highlights How Hispanics Impact the Culture & Economy of the United States

Each year, the conversation around Hispanic Heritage Month highlights the contributions of Hispanics to the culture and the economy of the United States. However, not many know how significant those contributions are. 

To highlight those numbers, Bank of America recently released its 2024 Metro Atlanta Latino Gross Domestic Product report, in partnership with the Latin American Association, Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and World Affairs Council of Atlanta. And the findings were remarkable.

Latinos in metro Atlanta produced a GDP of $37.9 billion in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available. Latino GDP grew three times as fast as non-Latino GDP.
 
Statewide, Latino GDP in Georgia totaled $52.2 billion in 2021, or about the size of the entire states of Vermont or Wyoming.

Latino population grew faster, the number of Latinos with bachelor’s degrees grew faster and the number of Latino homeowners grew faster than their non-Latino counterparts. Sometimes much faster.
 
 “Atlanta area Latinos are drivers of economic growth in the region and a critical source of resilience for the region’s economy,” said Al McRae, president, Bank of America Atlanta.

And that’s despite the pandemic, which hit Latinos harder than any other group.
 
The fact that Latinos are driving economic growth across the metro area might come as a surprise to metro Atlantans who view them as key contributors mostly in the agriculture, landscape, construction and hospitality industries. They are big contributors in those sectors. But they’re also big in finance/insurance and real estate, in information technology, in professional/business services and in government services.

Latinos also are increasingly a part of Atlanta’s executive ranks and its C-suites, a trend that is only going to continue, because the number of Latinos in metro Atlanta holding a bachelor’s degree grew at a rate 2.2 times that of Non-Latinos, from 2010 to 2021.
 
So, more Latinos — and more well-educated Latinos — are working their way into the fabric of Atlanta’s economy. As the report notes, “A young and growing Latino population is laying the foundation for Atlanta’s continuing growth through the twenty-first century.”

Here are the population numbers. There are currently more than 700,000 Latinos in metro Atlanta and more than 1 million in Georgia. Nationwide, the 65 million Americans with Latino heritage represent one fifth of the country’s people. In Atlanta, Latinos are expected to grow from 12 percent of the population currently to 21 percent by 2050, according to The Atlanta Regional Commission. 
 
The makeup of the Latino labor force here is overwhelmingly second- and third-generation Americans, according to the BofA report.
 
“These children and grandchildren of immigrants are combining the extraordinary and selfless work ethic of their elders with rapid educational attainment to propel not just Latino GDP but overall GDP growth in the Atlanta Metro Area, the state and the nation.”

The geography of the nation’s Latino population is pretty interesting. Georgia is one of 10 states that contain 76 percent of the country’s Latino population, as of 2021. Along with Georgia, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas were collectively home to over 47 million Latinos. But the growth in the Latino population is strong in other states. The three fastest-growing states by Latino population from 2015 to 2021 were New Hampshire (with 36.0 percent growth of the Latino population), Maine (30.1 percent), and Montana (27.1 percent). These three are followed, in order, by Vermont, Tennessee, and Idaho. 
 
“The distribution of Latino population growth is clear evidence that the economic impact of U.S. Latinos touches every corner of the nation,” the report notes.
 
Hispanic Heritage Month is an opportunity to reflect on the significance of investing in the Latino community. At HBE, we are a multicultural agency equipped with the knowledge and experience to help you identify the most effective ways to engage with this important group.

If you’d like to learn more, you can read the full report here: https://latinogdp.us

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