It's been a tense week for immigrants and people of color throughout the country, but there was some good news in California: a new study by the advocacy group National Council of La Raza points out that the state's Latinos, as a group, are doing much better in many areas.
"Latinos in the Golden State: An Analysis of Economic and Demographic Trends" reveals an increase in the median household income for the state's Latinos, and a decrease in their poverty rate. Median incomes for California Latinos rose more than $5,000 annually, and the poverty level dropped 2.4 percentage points (a larger dip than for the state's non-Hispanic white households). And more Latino children now have health insurance: between 2013 and 2014, California "had the largest decrease in the number of uninsured Latino children," according to the study.
The state's drop in those numbers accounted for a 44 percent drop in uninsured Latino children nationwide, although the report points out "the Latino child uninsurance rate (4 percent) is still double that of non-Hispanic white children (2 percent)." Further, children who have access to health care are an indicator that covered children "are more likely to surpass the economic status of their parents than those who lack coverage."
Latino-owned enterprises are also on the rise: "The number of businesses owned by Latinos in California increased by 43.9 percent between 2005 and 2011." They generated $98.9 million in gross receipts in 2012, a 23 percent increase from $80 million in 2007. Since 1990, Latino purchasing power rose by 367 percent to $320 billion.
Part of the increased prosperity may be attributable to more Latinos earning college degrees, a figure that increased by 25 percent from 2011 to 2015, nearly three times the increase for non-Hispanic white Californians (8.8 percent). There was a similar bump for associate's degrees earned in the same period.