Des Moines, Iowa — New census data shows the Latino population in Iowa increased by 116 percent from 2000 to 2015 which is a little more than 96-thousand (96,147) people.
The Latino population in Lyon County increased by 652 percent between 2000 and 2015. The latest estimate is that Latinos make up 2.7 percent of Lyon County’s population. They make up 10.2 percent of Sioux County’s population, 7.2 percent of Osceola County’s population, and 4.6 percent of O’Brien County’s population.
Latinos make up just under six percent of Iowa’s population, making them the largest minority group in the state. Thirty-two percent of the Latinos in Iowa were not born in this county. Seventy-eight percent of them came to Iowa from Mexico.
The median age of Latinos in Iowa is 22-point-two, while the state median age is thirty-eight-point-one. The median income of Latino households in 2015 was a little more than 38-thousand dollars, while the statewide median household income was nearly 55-thousand dollars (54,736.)
The poverty rate was 25-point-six percent, while the corresponding rate for Iowa is 12-point-two percent. The average family size for the Iowa Latino population in 2015 was 3.82, compared to the overall average family size in the state of 2.99.
Over half of the growth in Iowa’s Latino population from 2000-2015 occurred in seven counties: Polk, Woodbury, Johnson, Marshall, Scott, Pottawattamie, and Linn. Polk County had the largest overall population of Latinios at 21-point-four percent.
When it comes to the overall population, 27.4% of all residents of Crawford County were Latino, followed by Buena Vista 24.6%, Marshall at 20.7%, Muscatine at 17.5%, and Louisa at 16.2%.
You can find out more at the Iowa Data Center’s website.
