71% U.S. Population Growth Comes From Hispanics, Driving Demographic Shifts

The United States has witnessed a remarkable demographic transformation in recent years, as the Hispanic population has emerged as a driving force behind the nation’s population growth.

According to the latest Vintage 2023 Population Estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Hispanic population accounted for just under 71% of the overall growth of the U.S. population between 2022 and 2023.

This growth was primarily fueled by Hispanic births, as the Hispanic population of any race grew to just over 65 million, an increase of 1.16 million (1.8%) from the previous year. This significant increase contributed substantially to the nation’s total population gain of 1.64 million in 2023.

Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the Census Bureau’s Population Division, explained, “The Hispanic population is expanding at a substantially faster rate than the non-Hispanic population, primarily due to natural increase, that is, more births than deaths.” In contrast, the non-Hispanic population experienced a modest 0.2% increase, with a decline among non-Hispanic Whites, the largest demographic within the non-Hispanic category.

While natural increase made the greatest contribution to Hispanic population growth, international migration also played a notable role and accounted for approximately one-third of the overall net gain in the Hispanic population as just over 437,000 migrants entered the country.

The growing Hispanic population is reflected in the fact that Hispanics of any race made up almost one-fifth (19.5%) of the U.S. population in 2023, making it the second-largest group after the non-Hispanic White population. However, the Hispanic population’s yearly growth rate of 1.8% between 2022 and 2023 is slower than in previous decades, such as the 2.0% growth between 2012 and 2013 and the 3.7% growth between 2002 and 2003.

Despite this slower growth, the Hispanic population still outpaced the nation’s non-Hispanic population, which increased by just 0.2% (less than half a million) from 2022 to 269.7 million in 2023. This slower growth in the non-Hispanic population was largely due to natural decrease, where it experienced 217,000 more deaths than births from 2022 to 2023. Nevertheless, the non-Hispanic population did experience some growth due to a net gain of more than 700,000 people through international migration.

The demographic shifts are not limited to the national level. They are also evident at the state and metropolitan area levels. Twenty-seven of the 43 states that experienced population increases between 2022 and 2023 saw more growth in the Hispanic population relative to the non-Hispanic population. In 13 of those 27 states, the non-Hispanic population actually declined while the number of Hispanic residents increased.

Similarly, among metro areas with populations of 1 million or more that experienced growth during this period, 11 of them grew due to increases in the Hispanic population offsetting declines in the non-Hispanic population.

Such demographic shifts highlight the evolved diversity of the United States and the influence of the Hispanic population on the nation’s landscape.