Growth in Hispanic population slows

| June 15, 2013 9:00 PM

Idaho's Hispanic population increased 2.1 percent between mid-2011 and mid-2012, the slowest growth rate since the U.S. Census Bureau began tracking Hispanic population in 1981, the department announced.

Estimates released by the Census Bureau on Thursday put Idaho's Hispanic population at 185,160, up just over 3,800 from July 2011 to account for 11.6 percent of the state's overall population.

In Kootenai County, it grew by .09 percent to 4.1 percent of the population, or 5,820 people.

Fifteen states had higher concentrations of Hispanics, led by New Mexico at 47 percent.

Nationally, the Hispanic population grew 2.2 percent to over 53 million, 16.9 percent of the total population, which increased 0.7 percent between mid-2011 and mid-2012.

In Idaho, the Hispanic population grew by 2.1 percent for the same time period compared to a 0.8 percent increase for the entire state population.

Idaho's lowest Hispanic growth rate until last year was in 1987 at 2.3 percent when the state's Hispanic population was 47,673.

The state's slowdown in Hispanic population growth, in part the result of fewer Hispanics moving to Idaho from elsewhere, is reducing the gap in the proportion of the population that is young.

In 2010, 45.5 percent of all Hispanics in Idaho were under 20 years old, slipping more than a full percentage point to 44.2 percent in 2012. Hispanics under age 45 accounted for 83.3 percent of the total population in 2010 compared to 2012, when the percentage fell to 82 percent.

Idaho's overall population also saw a contraction in those age groups but at less than a percentage point - from 30.3 percent in 2010 to 29.5 percent in 2011 for people under age 20 and from 62.8 percent in 2010 to 61.9 percent in 2010 for people under age 45.

Clark County, Idaho's smallest in population, continued to have the highest concentration of Hispanics at 40.7 percent and is one of 11 counties where the Hispanic population declined. Bonner County in the Panhandle had the smallest concentration of Hispanics at 2.4 percent