Washington / AFP
07/29/2005

The Hispanic population in the US south is growing much faster than in other regions of the United States and it is developing significant differences from the older Latino centers of California and New York, said a report released Tuesday by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center.

"Sizeable Hispanic populations have emerged suddenly in communities where Latinos were a sparse presence just a decade or two ago," the report said of the region stretching from North Carolina to Arkansas.

With local economies growing robustly, the report said, the region is attracting large numbers of young male Latino migrants taking up low-paying jobs.

"While these trends are not unique to the south, they are playing out in that region with a greater intensity and across a larger variety of communities - rural, small towns, suburbs and big cities - than in any other part of the country," the report said.

The report focused on the sharp increase in the Hispanic population of North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee , Arkansas , Alabama , Georgia in the decade to 2000.

The states registered growth of Latino populations of between 208 percent and 394 percent, for greater than any other states in the country.

The study found 36 counties in the region scored more than 200 percent growth in Hispanic populations. Especially high growth rates were registered in Atlanta , Georgia and Charlotte , North Carolina .

In the county which includes Charlotte , the local Hispanic population grew more than 500 percent in the period, to 45,000 from 7,000. This sharp climb will have a "dramatic" impact on host communities across the south, the study said.

As immigrants form families, it noted, "the demands they make on public services will increase, but so too may their contributions to the tax bases supporting those services."

The estimated 41 million Hispanics in the United States are the biggest minority group.