Over the last decade, Wisconsin’s Latino population has steadily increased in both rural and urban areas, mirroring general trends across the nation.
A new University of Wisconsin study found that the total Latino population in Wisconsin increased from 193,000 people in 2000 to 336,000 in 2010, with an increasing population being born in the state.
Wisconsin ranks in the middle among states in terms of proportion of Latino residents, and the largest increases in Latino population were in counties with already significant Latino populations, the report found.
However, David Long, one of the report’s contributors, said Wisconsin is a good example of the growing number of Latinos in what he referred to as “non-traditional” locations.
“If you look to see where the population’s changing, there are a lot of more rural counties where Latinos are constituting a larger percentage than they have in the past,” Long said.
He emphasized the term Latino did not simply refer to immigrants, but to all people with some type of Latin American or Spanish origin.
Long said this trend represents a general dispersion of the Latino population across the country to places that historically had a low or practically absent Latino presence. Still, the report shows the majority of Latinos in Wisconsin can still be found in southeastern counties, especially in the Milwaukee area.
Additionally, the report indicates that a growing proportion of Latinos in Wisconsin were born in the state.
Compared to past census reports, the 2010 report indicated that a significantly lower percentage of Latinos in the U.S. are immigrants, and children and young adults comprise a much larger portion of the population when compared with the state’s total population.
Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said the growing Latino population is an opportunity for “a more diverse culture” in Madison and Dane County in general.
“In general, I see this as a positive statistic for the city of Madison,” Resnick said. “We are becoming a more diverse community, and that creates a set of unique challenges, but overall, I see this as a very positive track.”
