Latino Population Growth Rate Decreased After 2007, Report Finds

Latino Population Growth Rate Decreased After 2007, Report Finds: Nearly a year after the U.S. Census Bureau announced a surge in the Hispanic population, making it the largest minority group, a new analysis holds that the growth rate of the Latino population has actually seen a decrease in the later part of the decade.

The population growth analysis out of The Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program finds that the proportion of Latino growth has slowed significantly from 2007 on, as compared to the earlier half of the decade. The trend is seen in both metropolitan and suburban areas.

"It's kind of stopped on a dime," Senior Fellow William H. Frey, author of the report, told The Los Angeles Times. "The big turndown in growth is pervasive."

According to the report, which was released Tuesday, annual Hispanic growth rates in suburban areas "hovered between 4.5 and 5 percent during 2006-2007, then dropped steadily to 3.3 percent during 2009-2010." Likewise, in major cities, there was healthy growth in 2004-2005 and 2006-2007, but the percentage of growth dropped in the last three years.