LATINOS POWER THE U.S. ECONOMY WITH A $2.13 TRILLION GDP
by NGL Collective
In June, 2017, the Latino Donor Collaborative (LDC) released Latino Gross Domestic Product Report: Quantifying the Impact ofAmerican Hispanic Economic Growth, a study that for the first time ever calculates the full Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the American Latino population. At $2.13 trillion, the estimated U.S. Latino GDP is the seventh largest GDP in the world, with American Latinos driving growth of the U.S. workforce and economy.
Contrary to political rhetoric and many popular representations of Latinos, the study finds:
Latinos Contribute to the U.S. Economy — A Lot: At $2.13 trillion, the U.S. Latino GDP is the seventh largest GDP in the world and larger than that of India, Italy, Brazil, or Canada. The Latino GDP would trail only the U.S., China, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France.
Latinos are the Major Component of Growth of the U.S. Workforce: While the non-Latino workforce shrank by about 4,000 workers between 2010 and 2015, the Latino workforce grew by nearly 2.5 million, powering an overall increase of 2.4 million in the workforce age 25-64.
Latinos Greatly Outperform Expectations in Driving U.S. Economic Growth: At 2.9% the Latino Compound Annual Growth Rate of GDP between 2010 and 2015 (CGAR) was the third highest growth rate at the global level (behind only China and India) of major economies, and nearly 70% higher than the non-Latino US GDP rate of 1.7%. If these rates are sustained, Latinos will contribute nearly one quarter of all U.S. GDP growth between 2019 and 2020.
Latinos are Americans: In 2015, a supermajority of all Latinos were U.S. Citizens, either U.S.- born or naturalized citizens.
