The economic contribution of Latinos in the United States represents the fifth largest gross domestic product in the world, and the third fastest growing among the largest economies, according to a study released by Californian universities.
According to the researchers, the GDP of this community in the country in 2020 was 2.8 billion dollars and if this were the population of an independent country, its economic contribution would be the fifth largest after the United States, China, Japan and Germany.
This means that the economic activity of Latinos, who make up almost 19% of the US population, has been greater than that of the United Kingdom, India or France, according to the report.
A rapid growth
“While impressive in volume, the GDP of American Latinos is even more remarkable in its rapid growth,” added the report by Dan Hamilton and Matthew Fienup of California Lutheran University, and David Hayes Bautista and Paul Hsu of the University of California, Los Angeles.
They detail that between 2010 and 2020 the GDP of Latinos in the US was the third fastest growing among the ten largest in the world. In that period, the growth of the economic activity of Hispanics had a rate 2.6 times higher than that of the non-Latino population.
Resilient and hard working
The authors attributed the economic vigor of the Latino population to virtues such as resilience in the aftermath of the pandemic, a “hard work” ethic, self-sufficiency, and optimism.
“Another traditional pattern found by researchers over the years is that among all groups studied, Latinos tend to be the most optimistic about the future,” the report noted.
The largest component of GDP in the United States is consumer spending, which in 2020 accounted for 67% of the country’s economic activity. “In that year, the consumption of US Latinos reached 1.84 billion dollars or 66% of Latino GDP,” the report stressed. “Latinos in the US represent a larger consumer market than the entire economy of countries like Canada or South Korea.”
According to the study, the Latino contribution in 2020 was equivalent to 16.6% of the country’s total activity in finance, insurance and real estate; 13% from professional services; 13.3% in government services and 8.4% in education, health care and social assistance.
