The US Latino economy is growing faster than the country’s as a whole

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The Latino community is a key driver of the U.S. economy: its GDP is growing faster than that of the rest of the country. The total economic output of this group reached $4.1 trillion in 2023, almost three times what it was in 2010.

With a GDP like that, if it were a standalone economy, the U.S. Latino GDP would be the fifth largest in the world, ahead of countries like Canada and the United Kingdom, and growing twice as fast as the U.S. economy as a whole.

These are some of the conclusions of the annual economic study prepared by the Center for Latino Health and Culture at UCLA and the Cal Lutheran Center for Economic Research. The report highlights the impressive size of Latino GDP, defining it as a “growth spot.” One of the key takeaways from the study is that “the economic contributions and performance of Latinos from 2019 to 2023 — including in the face of the pandemic — made the U.S. Latino GDP the single fastest-growing GDP among the world’s 10 largest, surpassing even China.” Between 2010 and 2023, the last year with full available figures, average annual growth of U.S. Latino GDP was 4.4%, compared to 2.2% for the entire U.S. economy.

For Dr. David Hayes-Bautista, director of this UCLA organization, this increased growth rate, especially in the last two years, demonstrates a steady trend.

One of the main reasons for this significant economic performance is the high labor force participation rate of the Latino community. “Since 2011, this participation rate has been four percentage points higher than that of non-Latinos, but in 2023, this rate was 6.7 percentage points,” says Hayes-Bautista.

That is, that year, Latinos were 6.7% more likely to be actively working or looking for work than their non-Latino counterparts.