There are currently 42 million young people (ages 15 to 24) in the United States, and they account for 13% of the country's total population.
By ARCELIA SERRANO VARGAS SPECIAL FOR THE TIMES EN ESPAÑOL JULY 16, 2021
For the United Nations, a youth is a person between 15 and 24 years old; in the United States this same definition has been adopted, but not in the case of Mexico; in Mexico, youths are those aged from 12 to 29 years old.
Be that as it may, young people are a powerful group whose main advantage is precisely their youth and sufficient energy to enter the workforce, in existing companies or by starting their own, or in endless projects thanks to new technologies. Without any hesitation, it can be said that young people are the future of a country, and Latino youth are the future of the USA.
There are currently 42 million young people (ages 15 to 24) in the United States, representing 13% of the country's total population. Just as a point of reference, older adults, aged 60 and older, account for 24% of the population—that is, they make up nearly twice the size of the youth population.
Whether among the white population, African Americans, or Asians, only 1 in 10 are young people, but among Latinos the proportion is 2 in 10. AD
Thus, of the total number of young people in the country, a quarter are of Latino origin. Just 5 years ago, these young people represented less than a fifth of the total. This means that their number has been increasing, not due to migration, but because the number of Americans with Latino roots—that is, children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren of Latino immigrants—has increased.
Among these young Latinos, 84% were born in the United States, only 3% are naturalized citizens, 6% have legal permanent residency, and 7% are undocumented; but of the undocumented group, 6 out of 10 arrived in the U.S. when they were under 16 years of age, meaning they fall into the “Dreamers” category.
To date, 6 out of every 10 young people of Latino origin have completed high school or higher, and among them, 24% have earned some college credits and 10% have earned a bachelor’s degree. In other words, they have completed their education or are currently pursuing it.
At least half of young Latinos are already working in activities as varied as business administration, financial occupations, administrative support, as well as agriculture, construction, or passenger transportation. And of those who work, at least a third continue studying, meaning they combine working life with education. Young Latinos are breaking the stigma that has long accompanied the community, according to which Latinos only hold low-skilled and low-paying positions.
On the other hand, there are non-Hispanic whites, among whom aging is prevalent and increasing; currently, nearly a third of whites are 60 years of age or older, whereas among Latinos only a tenth are that age.
The average age among whites is 43 years, among African Americans it is 37, among Asians it is 38, while among Latinos it is 31 years.
This data is a sample of why we claim that the United States has a great wealth and a great treasure in the Latino youth. Because they are the ones who in the coming years will fully enter the workforce, many of them already working and paying taxes, benefiting the American economy, and upon whom, without a doubt, a large part of the burden will fall to sustain the pension system, which is increasingly demanding of resources in the US. So, beyond the divisive rhetoric that still prevails in some areas of the country, it is important to recognize that the Latino youth contributes and will contribute even more so that the United States continues to be the most important economy in the world.
* Arcelia Serrano Vargas is an economist with postgraduate studies in Regional Development. She is currently a researcher and analyst at Mexa Institute.
Source: Vargas, A. S. (2021, July 16). OPINION: Latino youth, the treasure of the United States – Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times in Spanish.
https://www.latimes.com/espanol/eeuu/articulo/2021-07-16/juventud-latina-el-tesoro-de-estados-unidos-demografia
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