Latinos accounted for the overwhelming majority of the population growth in the United States between 2022 and 2023, an estimate from the US Census Bureau revealed on Thursday, with the bulk of the growth coming from high birth rates.
According to the bureau’s Vintage 2023 Population Estimates, between 2022 and 2023, the Hispanic population in the US grew to 65 million, an increase of 1.16 million (1.8 percent) from the previous year. This growth equates to just under 71 percent of the national’s total population gain of 1.64 million in 2023.
The Census Bureau reports that rapid birth rates in the Latino community were the driving factor for the population growth, with 722,000 more births than deaths last year. In contrast, the non-Hispanic population grew by 0.2 percent to 269.7 million in that same period. Among non-Hispanics, deaths outnumbered births by 217,000.
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International migration also played a significant role in the growth of both Latino and non-Latino populations. According to the report, just over 437,000 Hispanic migrants came into the country between 2022 and 2023, resulting in about one-third of that demographic’s population growth. At the same time, “the non-Hispanic population experienced some growth due to a net gain of more than 700,000 people through net international migration” despite declining birth rates.
Broken down further, the drop-off among non-Hispanics was driven entirely by Whites, the only group to see a decrease in population. Between 2022 and 2023, Whites saw 630,000 more deaths than births but retained the largest share of the population (58 percent) at 195 million. However, that total decreased by 0.2 percent from the previous year. All other non-Hispanic racial groups experienced population growth in 2023.
- Two or More Races: +2.4%
- Asian: +2.3%
- Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander: +1.7%
- Black: +0.6%
- American Indian and Alaska Native: +0.3%
With the growth of all demographics taken into account, Hispanics made up 20 percent of the overall US population in 2023, the second largest group after non-Hispanic Whites.
As Axios warned in a report on the bureau’s findings, this growth comes as “the far-right, racist ‘white replacement theory’ gains traction among more Republicans.” The outlet continues:
The expansion of the Latino population and the drop in white Americans has sparked a growing number of elected Republicans to embrace the “white replacement theory” to explain the demographic shift.
That’s a decades-old conspiracy theory that alleges the existence of a plot to change America’s racial composition by methodically enacting policies that reduce white Americans’ political power.
The conspiracies encompass strains of anti-Semitism as well as racism and anti-immigrant sentiment.
However, Axios definitively states that the numbers reported by the Census Bureau do not reflect any kind of conspiracy to replace or breed out the White population in the US.
The report also found that the median age in the US increased by 0.2 to 39, indicating that the nation’s demographics are getting older as the Baby Boomer generation enters retirement age.
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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