America’s Future:Latino Child Well-being

This data book, produced by the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) and the Population Reference Bureau (PRB), is the first publication of its kind to offer a comprehensive overview of the state of Latino children by integrating a range of key factors and outcomes in the areas of demography, citizenship, family structure, poverty, health, education, and juvenile justice. It provides an overview of current national and state-level trends for Latino children under age 18 relative to non-Hispanic White and Black children, documenting both regional variations and changing trends since the year 2000. The data described in this document tell a compelling but unfortunately alarming story, pointing primarily to the numerous obstacles and inequalities that currently impede Latino children’s paths toward a successful adulthood and that may hinder the broader integration of Latinos into U.S. society if left unattended. ... In addition to describing more than 25 indicators of Latino child well-being at the national level, the data book also reveals the wide diversity of the Latino child and youth population across the country, with many of the indicators varying considerably across states and regions, and perhaps even more significantly by generation and degree of integration. Latino children in new immigrant gateway states of the Southeast, for example, which have experienced a very rapid increase in first- and second-generation Latino children over the past ten years, have high numbers of children in low-income families and linguistically isolated households, but also lower rates of overweight and incarceration, relative to several states with more established Latino communities. (from the executive summary)