The State of Hispanic population in Long

The State of Hispanic Population in Long Beach, California

By Kate Nash

As of data from the 2020 census, Long Beach had a population of 452,917 and currently the 7th largest city in California. About 88.2 percent of the population in Long Beach are US citizens. As of 2019, there were 1.18 times more non-Hispanic White residents than any other race in the city and about 111,000 White Hispanics and 80.1K other Hispanics in the city representing the second and third most common ethnic groups.

This means that about 44.8% of the population in Long Beach are Hispanics. It is important that we understand this as it forms our topic in this article.

Even though Hispanics forms nearly half of Long Beach’s population, the residents who identify themselves as Hispanics go through various socioeconomic challenges compared to other ethnicities in the city.

According to Long Beach Latino Economic Report inaccessibility to digital resources, lack of higher education, housing and health care are among the top challenges Latinos face in Long Beach. Yet, they are the region’s underserved minority population despite being the dominant force in the city.

Employment data from the same report shows that the Latino community led other ethnicities in the labor force participation. At least 102,209 Latinos in the city participate in the civilian labor force which means 4 in 10 people of all the working residents are Latinos.

The sectors where we find Latinos participating more in terms of employment is in Manufacturing and industrial related jobs than we have in business or management related jobs. This has a huge impact economic wise as employed Latinos have an economic impact of $34.3 billion representing 38.1% of Long Beach’s total economic impact in LA and Orange counties. The Latino households contribute 36% of all federal, state and local tax revenues generated by Long Beach households.

When it comes to housing, the Latino renter will spend about 43.8% of his/her income on housing compared to the 40.1% for all other ethnicities. In addition, the larger percentage of Long Beach Latinos are renters at 67.1% compared to 55.7% of all other ethnicities combined.

The U.S. Census brings to light the socioeconomic gaps between local Latinos and other groups especially when it comes to household and family incomes. According to the Census Bureau, a family is a unit made up of two or more people related by birth, marriage or adoption and a household consist of all people who are in a home, regardless of their relationships to one another.

The median household income for the Long beach Latino is $51,646 which is 14.7% lower than the city’s median household income of $60,557. The median family income for the Latinos in Long Beach is $52,200 compared to $80,000 among all other Long Beach Families.

Jessica Quintana, executive director of Centro CHA, told the Business Journal that these figures confirm that Latinos are economically lagging behind other ethnicities in the city.

“It’s so important we educate our community constituents, our leaders, our residents on this data,” she said. Quintana believes this disparity exists because there’s a lack of opportunities for the Latino population. “If they don’t have access to good paying jobs, that’s just really going to tell the future of how well these families and their children are going to do economically in this city.”

This shows that at least 6,865 Latino Families in Long Beach are in poverty- a figure representing about 16 percent of all Long Beach Latino families compared to 9.8 percent of all other ethnic families in the city.

Moving forward, it will be important to make sure that the Latino population in Long Beach is well educated. The various economic disparities present a unique opportunity for a public education campaign that will ensure health care access, voter education and homeownership.

In addition, seeing that the Latino population suffer the most when it comes to housing, the city could put a moratorium on significant rent increases while also creating a more affordable housing and comprehensive workforce development plan.