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News > St. Louis City / County > Story
Missouri's Hispanic population continues to boom
By Kim Bell
Of the Post-Dispatch
08/11/2005
The Hispanic population in Missouri grew by nearly 25 percent between 2000 and 2004, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The bureau accounted for 148,201 Hispanics living in Missouri in the population estimates of July 1, 2004. That's an increase of 29,584 since 2000.
"They've continued at an impressive rate," said Daryl Hobbs, senior research associate at the University of Missouri's Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis. "It's a large increase. But the Hispanic population is still only 2 percent of the population of the state."
Hobbs said his office put together a Missouri map with census figures showing that all but 11 counties in the state saw an increase in the number of Hispanics. Advertisement
"Nothing on that map surprises me," he said. "The patterns of growth are very similar to what they were between 1990 and 2000."
In that decade, Missouri's Hispanic population grew to 118,000 from about 60,000, he said.
The Census Bureau's report, released Thursday, focused on county and state population estimates by age, sex, race and Hispanic origin. Hispanics, who may be of any race, are the fastest-growing minority group nationwide. In fact, they accounted for half of America's total population change from 2003 to 2004.
The bureau's figures also show that Texas has now joined California, Hawaii and New Mexico as states where minorities make up more than 50 percent of the population.
Illinois counted 1.7 million Hispanics in 2004, compared with 1.5 million in 2000.
Matthew Christenson, a demographer with the Census Bureau, said the population estimates for Hispanics try to take into account undocumented migrants. "However, we need to take (estimates) with a grain of salt because it's a difficult enterprise, and we don't have a good handle on the numbers of undocumented migrants," he said.
What's bringing Hispanics to the Show-Me State? Jobs - first and foremost, Hobbs says.
In the rural pockets of Missouri, such as Barry and McDonald counties, Hispanics largely come for jobs at poultry processing plants. But nearly three of every four Hispanics in Missouri live in a metro area. In mid-Missouri's Boone and Cole counties, "what's driving it are the jobs in health care and education. There's a need for a lot of support services, laundry, maintenance," Hobbs said.
Jackson County, which includes Kansas City in western Missouri, has traditionally been a draw for Hispanics. The census numbers account for 43,000 Hispanics in that county. St. Louis County has the second-highest concentration of Hispanics, with 17,244.
Haniny Hillberg, who helps organize the annual St. Louis Hispanic Festival, has been in St. Louis for more than 30 years. She said St. Louis lacks a barrio for its Hispanics like Kansas City has, but she still sees a constant migration to this area.
She says she has known about 200 Hispanics who have moved to the city in the last four years. They come from Texas, Florida, Chicago.
"They come for better opportunities in the Midwest," she said. "During the summer, they find jobs in landscaping. People treat them very nice."
Hillberg, 57, of Florissant, said Hispanics "are exposed to Spanish language 24 hours a day, seven days a week in places like Chicago and Texas and Florida. Here in Missouri, you're forced to learn English because you have families, and you need to educate them."
Elisa Bender, 29, of St. Charles, is Hillberg's daughter. She said St. Louis' cost of living is lower than that of other large U.S. cities, and St. Louis has more rural areas nearby that provide farm work. She said the Hispanic communities in the St. Louis area can be found near Cherokee Street in St. Louis and in Fairmont City, Ill. St. Ann, Overland and the St. Charles area also have growing Hispanic populations.
Steve Bolhafner of the Post-Dispatch news research department contributed to this report.
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