By: Daniel Nardini

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the number of Mexican immigrants to the United States—both legal and undocumented—has actually declined by 60 percent since the year 2006. Part of the reason has been border enforcement, part of the reason has been lack of jobs, and part of the reason has been a better Mexican economy that is keeping Mexican immigrants at home. What many researchers have discovered is that the Mexican American population—those born and raised in the United States—has surged during the decade from the years 2000 to 2010.

In fact, the number of Americans of Mexican descent born and raised in the United States now account for the majority of the whole Mexican American communities here. Before the year 2000, the majority of all Mexican Americans were foreign-born who immigrated to the United States and either became U.S. permanent residents or U.S. citizens. Since 2000, this trend has reversed. During the decade from 2000 to 2010, Americans of Mexican descent born in the U.S. grew by 7.2 million compared to 4.2 million Mexican immigrants who came to the U.S.

What this means is that the majority of the Mexican American population is more likely these days to be native born Americans, young, and who make-up all the majority of children, young people, and those women in their child-bearing years compared to what the composition of what the Mexican American communities of the past resembled. The overall age for Mexican Americans in most Mexican American communities tends to be 25 years old. The majority of people overall in most other Latino communities—especially Puerto Rican and Cuban American communities—tend to be 30 years old on average. This is largely due to many Puerto Rican and Cuban American communities having been established earlier.

Overall the Puerto Rican and Cuban American communities have a growing older population by comparison to the Mexican American communities. Of course, as more native born Mexican Americans become the norm, Mexican American communities will begin to have more older people in the decades to come. For now, the Mexican American population is for the most part young and largely born and raised in America. This trend will continue in the years to come.