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Article: Hispanic Americans
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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HISPANIC AMERICANS
HISPANIC AMERICANS.
According to the 2000 Census, Hispanic Americans make up 12.5 percent of the total population of the United States and are now the nation's largest ethnic minority group, surpassing African Americans by a margin of 0.2 percent.
The nation's 20.5 million Hispanics of Mexican heritage (often called Chicanos) constitute 66 percent of the Hispanic American population and make up about 7.3 percent of the total U.S. population. At nearly 3.5 million, Puerto Ricans living in the United States are the second largest Hispanic American group; Cuban Americans are third largest, with a population of just over 1.24 million. Hispanics in the United States also ...