Atlanta’s Hispanic Population: A Pyramid of Growth

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we look at how the Hispanic or Latino community in our Atlanta region has evolved over the last few decades. To that end, we use population pyramids to present data from the Decennial Census, including the 2020 Census Demographic and Housing Characteristics tables released earlier this year.

Population pyramids are a special type of bar graph that show the number of males (on the left) and females (on the right) to facilitate analysis across age groups. We present these graphs on the same scale over time to allow for comparison across the decades.

Figure 1 shows the population pyramid for the Hispanic/Latino population in 1990 for the 11-County ARC region:

The first thing that stands out in Figure 1 (above) is how narrow the bars are in 1990, compared to these data in more recent years (as seen later on in this post). Indeed, the Hispanic or Latino population for our 11-county region in 1990 stood at just 55,105, compared with 652,848 by 2020– almost 11 times the 1990 figure. By comparison, the region’s population as a whole grew about 94% during the same 30-year period.[1]

Closer examination of the bars shows that the biggest Hispanic age groups in 1990 were the 20-24 and 25-29 cohorts, while the bars representing children are fairly small. Moreover, the bars for males in these two age groups are .considerably larger than the bars for females. Since women usually outnumber men slightly in the overall population, the number of males per 100 females, also known as the “sex ratio,” is typically just a bit under 100. By contrast, the sex ratio for the Hispanic/Latino population in 1990 was 122.0. The sex ratio in 1990 was even higher among those young working-age groups: 168.4 for ages 20-24 and 145.3 for ages the 25-29. These data are consistent with a story of migrant labor: young, mostly male workers come to the region, make money to send home, and themselves eventually mostly return to their home countries.

By 2000, the story has shifted some, as shown in Figure 2 below.

The first thing that is noticeable in Figure 2 is the amount of population growth itself, as shown by the longer bars. Males outnumber females even more than in 1990. The sex ratio has increased from 122.0 to 147.9, meaning that there were about 148 men for every 100 women. This imbalance is even more pronounced than in 1990 among the younger working-ages: the sex ratios among the 20-24 and 25-29 age groups have now risen to 200.2 and 180.0 respectively. But at the same time, we now see increased numbers of children in the ages 5-9 and especially under 5 categories. This graph thus illustrates two dynamics: (1) the influx of labor that facilitated the region’s construction boom of the 1990s; (2) the portion of these workers that have stayed to start families.

Figure 3 presents the picture, circa 2010.

While the Hispanic/Latino population continues to grow, we see in Figure 3 that the large disparities between males and females have subsided significantly between 2000 and 2010. The overall sex ratio has now dropped to 115.4. And even among the 20-24 and 25-29 age groups where we observed the biggest imbalances in 2000, the sex ratios have diminished 142.3 and 131.8 respectively. We also see a lot more children– children under the age of five are now the largest age group. And the 5-9 age group is just a bit smaller than 25-29 and 30-34 age groups.

The story continued to develop over the 2010s, as shown in Figure 4 below.

By 2020, imbalances between males and females are no longer readily apparent on Figure 4 (above) . The sex ratio is now 102.5 males per 100 females, very close to an even split [3]. Even among the 20-24 and 25-29 age groups, the sex ratios have come close to parity at 108.6 and 105.9 respectively. We also see the population aging; the 35-39 and 40-44 age groups are now wider than the 30-34 and 25-29 bands, a flip since 2010. As such, the baby boom of the 2000s subsided in the 2010s: the bars for the 5-9 and especially under 5 age groups are shorter than those for the 10-14 and 15-19 age groups.

Thus, the story of Atlanta’s Hispanic population over the last three decades is basically the story of your typical Atlanta transplant[4]: come to work, not necessarily expecting to stay; decide it’s pretty nice here[5] after all; settle down to raise a family; and grow older.

Footnotes:

[1] The Hispanic population grew from around 2.2% to about 13.1% of the region’s population over the last 30 years.

[2] the sex ratio for the overall population in the 11-county region was 97.0 in 1990.

[3] This is still somewhat higher than the region as a whole, which comes in at 92.6.

[4] Or at least it’s the author’s story.

[5] If you’re wondering where “here” is for the Hispanic/Latino community, we’ve got you covered– https://33n.atlantaregional.com/monday-mapday/changing-demographics-race-and-ethnicity-1990-to-2020