As we’ve pretty consistently found over time, the metro area’s Hispanic population is central to our region’s growing diversity. Recently, we took a look at regional population trends and showed that the Hispanic population accounted for 1 in 5 of net new residents in the 11-county area between 2010 and 2020.

For this installment of our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we’ll be taking a look at the countries our Hispanic neighbors either once called home or whose parents and ancestors called home. Some quick notes about the data: When considering countries of origin, the U.S. Census Bureau and other federal agencies look exclusively at Spanish-speaking countries. Brazil, therefore, is not included in these maps and charts. For accuracy, we’ll also be using the word Hispanic throughout the post because the data does not include the full range of countries that correspond to Latino/Latinx identity.

Country of Origin: Total Population

When it comes to population numbers in 2019, Mexico is by far the largest country of origin in the 11-county area. The map and accompanying chart below show which countries our Hispanic neighbors or their parents and ancestors once called home.

Percent Change, 2000 to 2019

While the overwhelming majority of our Hispanic residents who included their country of origin on the ACS identify as Mexican, that doesn’t mean we haven’t seen tremendous growth in the number of residents hailing from other Spanish-speaking countries. The next set of charts examines percent change in three time periods: 2000 to 2019, 2000 to 2010 and 2010 to 2019.

Below, we can see that over the past 20 years, the Hispanic country of origin with the greatest percent change increase, in our ARC Region, is the Dominican Republic.

Finally, when we look at change in shares over the decade of 2000 to 2010 and the 2010 to 2019 span, we can see that the time period of greatest increased shares was 2000 to 2010. During that time, Uruguay led the pack for percent change, followed by the Dominican Republic, and many countries saw much more than 100 percent growth in their numbers. By comparison, no countries saw over 100 percent change in the 2010 to 2019 period.