Affluent Hispanics: The Forgotten Population Segment

It seems like every news story about the Hispanic or Latino population in the United States center around key indicators showing us lagging behind White and Asian counterparts. These data points illustrate the fact that although income levels have increased over 5% since the great recession of 2008, they still fall well short of the 12% Asian populations observed.

The American media generally lumps all Hispanics together into first-generation immigrants that are performing manual labor for minimum wage. Although this is the way many of our families got started in the country it is far from the reality that exists today. In fact over 22% of Hispanics now have a college degree. This number will continue to grow especially as the Latino population becomes younger with more being born within the United States.

For all of the doom and gloom statistics show us, there are some that are still finding a way to thrive in today’s economic environment. In fact 6.7 million Hispanics report incomes of over $100k which is over 12% of the overall population. This segment has a combined buying power of over $650 billion. To top it off this is one of the fastest growing segments in the population and expected to rise significantly.

So what does all of this mean? Well it’s one of the reasons this site exists. This segment is growing in wealth and influence yet pretty much flies beneath the radar in today’s mainstream media. Sure there aren’t as many Hispanic and Latino business owners or C-level executives as some other ethnicities but the numbers are not insignificant. It is now our job to continue to demonstrate how influential this population segment is and serve as an inspiration for those who don’t believe success can be found. The ultimate goal: forgotten no more!