WASHINGTON (By Felisa Gonzales, Pew Hispanic Center) May 9, 2008 — There are 30.1 million Hispanic adults in the United States and 14.4 million of them — or 48% — are women, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates.1 This fact sheet describes the demographic, employment and income characteristics of Hispanic women in the U.S. using data from the 2007 Current Population Survey. It focuses on differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic women, between native-born and foreign-born Hispanic women, and among immigrant Hispanic women from different countries of origin.

Highlighted Characteristics of Adult Hispanic Women: (2007 Current Population Survey)

• Approximately half (48%) of all Hispanic women were born in the U.S. or born abroad to a parent who is a U.S. citizen; the other half (52%) were born in countries other than the U.S.

• Among immigrant Hispanic women, 57% have arrived since 1990. Six-in-ten Hispanic women immigrants were born in Mexico.

• Hispanic women are much younger than non-Hispanic women; their median age is 41, compared with a median age of 47 for non-Hispanic women. Native-born Hispanic women are even younger. Their median age is 39, compared with 42 for immigrant Hispanic women.

• The majority (55%) of all Hispanic women report that they speak only English in their home or that they speak English very well. Most of these English speakers are native born. Seven-in-ten (73%) immigrant Hispanic women report that they do not speak English in their home or that they do not speak English very well.

• Hispanic and non-Hispanic women are equally likely (54%) to be married. Hispanic women immigrants (63%) are more likely to be married than are native-born Hispanic women (44%), largely due to the fact that native-born Hispanic women are younger than immigrant Hispanic women.

• Hispanic women who gave birth were more likely to be unmarried (42%) than were non-Hispanic women (34%) who gave birth. The share of out-of-wedlock births to Hispanic women immigrants (35%) was nearly equal to that of non-Hispanic women and was much lower than the share for native-born Hispanic women (50%).

• Hispanic women are less educated than non-Hispanic women. Some 36% have less than a high school education, compared with 10% of non-Hispanic women. Nearly half (49%) of all Hispanic women immigrants have less than a high school education; a similar share (46%) of native-born Hispanic women have at least some college education.

• The labor force participation rate of Hispanic women (59%) is similar to the participation rate for non-Hispanic women (61%). Native-born Hispanic women (64%) have a higher participation rate.

• Hispanic women who work full time earn less than non-Hispanic women who work full time: a median of $460 per week, compared with $615 per week for non-Hispanic women. Native-born Hispanic women earn a median of $540 per week, while immigrant women earn $400.

• Hispanic women are twice as likely as non-Hispanic women to live in poverty; 20% of Hispanic women are poor compared with 11% of non-Hispanic women.

• The most common occupations of Hispanic women are office and administrative support positions; 21% Hispanic women work in those types of occupations. This share is similar to that of non-Hispanic women, 22% of whom work in those occupations.

• Hispanic women are more likely than non-Hispanic women to be employed in blue-collar occupations such as building, grounds cleaning and maintenance (10% versus 2%); food preparation and serving related jobs (9% versus 6%); production (8% versus 4%); and personal care and service occupations (7% versus 5%).

Acknowledgements

Rakesh Kochhar and Susan Minushkin were instrumental in determining the content and focus of this fact sheet. The author thanks them for their guidance, input and editorial comments. Jeff Passel and Rick Fry provided much appreciated help with the fertility and income calculations, respectively. Gretchen Livingston and Susan Minushkin checked the numbers in the text, figures and appendix tables for consistency and accuracy.

A Note on Terminology

“Adults” are ages 18 and older.

“Foreign-born” refers to an individual who is not a U.S. citizen at birth or, in other words, who was born outside the U.S., Puerto Rico or other U.S. territories and who does not have a U.S. citizen parent.

The terms “foreign-born” and “immigrant” are used interchangeably throughout the fact sheet.

Data Sources

Numbers presented in the text and figures are rounded to the nearest whole number. When two categories are discussed jointly in the text, e.g. English only or English very well, the number presented is the summation of the two non-rounded data points. As a result, some of the numbers in the text differ from numbers in figures by one percentage point.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Age

• Hispanic women are younger than are other women in the United States. The median age of Hispanic women is 41, compared with 47 for non-Hispanic women.

• Hispanic women are more likely than non-Hispanic women to be under the age of 35. Whereas 42% of Hispanic women are ages 18 to 34, only 28% of non-Hispanic women are.

• Some 19% of non-Hispanic women are ages 65 or older, while just 10% of Hispanic women are in this age group.

• Immigrant Hispanic women are older than native-born Hispanic women. While the median age of Hispanic immigrant women is 42, the median age of native-born Hispanic women is 39.

Country of Birth

• Six-in-ten (60%) immigrant Hispanic women are from Mexico.

• Women from Central America comprise the second largest group of Hispanic immigrants. Nearly 14% of immigrant Hispanic women are from Central America. Almost half of Hispanic immigrant women from Central America are from El Salvador.

• Caribbean countries contribute about the same number of immigrant Hispanic women as all of South America. Nearly all of the 13% of immigrant Hispanic women from the Caribbean were born in Cuba or the Dominican Republic. Almost half of the 12% of women from South America are Colombian.

Year of Entry

• One-fifth (20%) of immigrant Hispanic women arrived in the U.S. before 1980.

• One-third of (33%) of Hispanic immigrant women arrived between 1990 and 1999.

• Nearly equal proportions of immigrant Hispanic women arrived in the U.S. in the 1980s (23%) and in the last eight years (25%).

Citizenship

• Immigrant Hispanic women are much less likely than non-Hispanic immigrants to be naturalized citizens. Whereas more than half (55%) of non-Hispanic immigrant women are naturalized citizens, less than one-third (31%) of immigrant Hispanic women are.

• Naturalization rates for Hispanic women differ by country of origin. Mexican women are the least likely to be naturalized citizens—only 24% are. Central and South American women are more likely than Mexican women to be naturalized citizens, 32% and 42% respectively. Hispanic women from the Caribbean are the most likely—55% are naturalized.

Language

• The majority (55%) of Hispanic women in the U.S. speaks only English in the home or report speaking English very well.

Marital Status

• The marital status of Hispanic women is similar to that of non-Hispanic women. Equal shares of Hispanic and non-Hispanic women are married (54%).

• Foreign-born Hispanic women are much more likely to be married than are native-born Hispanic women, 63% versus 44% for the native born. Some, but not all, of this difference can be explained by the fact that native-born Hispanic women are younger than immigrant Hispanic women. While 68% of native-born Hispanic women ages 18-29 have never been married, 59% of immigrant Hispanic women in this age range are married or divorced or separated.

• Hispanic women are more likely to give birth than their non-Hispanic counterparts. In 2005-2006, Hispanic women had 84 births per 1,000 women compared with 63 births per 1,000 non-Hispanic women.

• Among Hispanic women, immigrants are more likely to give birth than their native-born counterparts. Immigrant Hispanic women had 96 births per 1,000 women while native-born Hispanic women had 73 births per 1,000 women.

• Immigrant Hispanic women from Mexico are most likely among all immigrant Hispanic women to give birth; their fertility rate was 106 births per 1,000 women.

• Immigrant Hispanic women from the Caribbean are less likely to give birth than non-Hispanic women. Their fertility rate was 60 births per 1,000 women versus 63 births per 1,000 non-Hispanic women.

• Hispanic women who gave birth in the last year were more likely to be unmarried than their non-Hispanic counterparts. While 42% of Hispanic women who gave birth were unmarried, only 34% of non-Hispanic mothers were unmarried.

• Some 35% of immigrant Hispanic women who gave birth were unmarried, nearly identical to the share (34%) of non-Hispanic women who gave birth and were unmarried.

• Native-born Hispanic women who gave birth were more likely than immigrant Hispanic women to be unmarried. Half (50%) of all births to native-born Hispanic women in the previous year were to single mothers compared with 35% of immigrant Hispanic women.

• While immigrant Hispanic women from the Caribbean had the lowest fertility rates (60 births per 1,000 women), they were also the most likely among immigrant Hispanic women to be single mothers. Nearly half (47%) of immigrant Hispanic women from the Caribbean who gave birth were unmarried.

Education

• Hispanic women are less educated than non-Hispanic women. Some 36% have less than a high school education, compared with 10% of non-Hispanic women.

• Immigrant Hispanic women are more likely than native born Hispanic women to have less than a high school education. Nearly half (49%) of all Hispanic women immigrants have not completed high school, compared with 22% of the native born.

• In contrast, native-born Hispanic women are nearly twice as likely as immigrant Hispanic women to have some college education. While 46% of native-born Hispanic women have at least some college education, only 24% of immigrant Hispanic women do.

• Foreign-born Hispanic women from South America have the highest levels of education; half (50%) have attended college. They are more than twice as likely as immigrant women from Central America, and more than three times as likely as immigrant women from Mexico, to have at least some college education.

Health Insurance Coverage

• Hispanic women are nearly three times as likely as non-Hispanic women to be uninsured, 36% versus 13%.

• Both native-born Hispanic women and immigrant Hispanic women are more likely than non-Hispanic women to lack health insurance. While only 13% of non-Hispanic women are uninsured, almost half (47%) of immigrant Hispanic women and a quarter (25%) of native-born Hispanic women lack health insurance.

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

Labor Force

• The majority of Hispanic women participate in the labor force; that is, they are either employed or actively seeking employment. Fully 59% of Hispanic women participate in the labor force, compared with 61% of non-Hispanic women.

• A greater share of native-born Hispanic women than immigrant Hispanic women participate in the labor force, 64% compared with 54% for immigrants.

• Native-born Hispanic women are more likely than immigrant Hispanic women to be employed, either full time or part time. Six-in-ten (61%) native-born Hispanic women are employed as compared with five-in-ten (51%) immigrant Hispanic women.

• Immigrant Hispanic women from Mexico are the least likely of all Hispanic immigrant women to be employed. Less than half (46%) of immigrant Hispanic women from Mexico are employed, compared with 52% of immigrant Hispanic women from the Caribbean, 61% from South America and 63% from Central America.

Weekly Earnings

• Median weekly earnings for Hispanic women who are employed full-time are $460 per week. The median weekly earnings of non-Hispanic women, $615, are 34% higher.

• Native-born Hispanic women earn more than immigrant Hispanic women. Among Hispanic women who are employed full time, the median weekly earnings of the native born are 35% greater than those of immigrant Hispanic women, $540 versus $400.

• Immigrant Hispanic women from Mexico have the lowest median weekly earnings of all immigrant Hispanic women. Immigrant Hispanic women from Mexico earn 9% less than immigrant Hispanic women from Central America, 15% less than those from the Caribbean, and 31% less than those from South America.

Household Income in 2006

• Hispanic women are much more likely than non-Hispanic women to live in a lower-income household53% compared with 34%.

• Among Hispanic women, the majority of the native born are members of the middle and upper income groups (55%) while the majority of immigrants are members of the lower income group (61%).

Definition of income groups

In this section, household incomes are adjusted for the number of people in a household and are presented for a household size of three (see Section II Appendix of Pew Social and Demographic Trends, “Inside the Middle Class: Bad Times Hit the Good Life” (April 2008)). In 2006, the median household income scaled to represent a three-person household was $32,046. By our definition, a woman is considered middle income if she lives in a household with an annual income that falls within 75% to 150% of the median household income. In 2006, that income range for a three-person household was $24,035 to $48,069. A woman whose median household income is above that range is considered in the upper income group; a woman whose household income is below that range is in the lower income group.

• Hispanic women are nearly twice as likely as non-Hispanic women to live in poverty. One-in-five (20%) Hispanic women live in poverty, compared with one-in-ten (11%) of non-Hispanic women.

• Immigrant Hispanic women are slightly more likely than native-born Hispanic women to live in poverty, 22% versus 18%.

Occupation

• Hispanic women are more likely than non-Hispanic women to be employed in blue-collar occupations such as building, grounds cleaning and maintenance (10% versus 2%); food preparation and serving-related jobs (9% versus 6%); production (8% versus 4%) and personal care and service occupations (7% versus 5%).

• The most common occupations held by Hispanic women are in office and administrative support. One-in-five (21%) employed Hispanic women are in those occupations, a similar share as for non-Hispanic women (22%).

• Hispanic women account for 12% of the employed female population in the United States. However, they account for 42% of women employed in farming, fishing and forestry occupations, 37% of women in building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations; and 23% of women in production occupations.

• The majority of Hispanic women employed in occupations listed in Table 4 are immigrants. Three-quarters or more of the Hispanic women employed in farming, fishing and forestry; building and grounds cleaning and maintenance; production; and construction and extraction occupations were foreign-born.

Industry

• Hispanic women are more likely than non-Hispanic women to work in the following industries: eating, drinking and lodging services (11% versus 6%); personal and laundry services/private household services (6% versus 3%); and nondurable goods manufacturing (5% versus 3%).

• More Hispanic women work in the wholesale/retail trade industry than any other industry. One-in-seven (15%) Hispanic women work in the wholesale/retail trade industry, a similar share as for non-Hispanic women (14%).

• Immigrant Hispanic women are represented to a much larger degree than native-born Hispanic women in agricultural, manufacturing and service-oriented industries. Two-thirds or more of the Hispanic women who work in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining; nondurable goods manufacturing; personal and laundry services/private household services; and eating, drinking and lodging services industries are immigrants.