Report Shows Growing Latino Consumer Power
PHOENIX – New numbers released Tuesday by the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce show a growing base of Latino consumers and business owners in the state.
The buying power of Arizona Latinos has nearly tripled since 2000, to $40 billion in 2012, according to the latest edition of the Hispanic Chamber’s annual report, known as DATOS.
Loui Olivas, an emeritus professor at Arizona State University, directed the research for the report.
"Over the next three years in 2015 we will reach $50 billion," Olivas said. "That is a 25 percent increase in three years. No other population group in purchasing power is growing that fast. And that is significant."
Nationally, Latino purchasing power is worth more than $1 trillion a year.
The report found that Arizona has around 67,000 Latino business owners. The percentage of business owners who identify as Latino here is the fifth largest in the country.
The report also examines how the Latino population is changing culturally in the U.S.
One section details the "acculturation" levels of the Latino population nationally and in Arizona on a five-step scale from most culturally American to most culturally Latin American. It is based on data from the business research firm, Geoscape.
The largest share of Latinos in Phoenix – 27.9 percent – fall in the second-most Americanized category, known as "Nueva Latina."
This group tends to be second-generation immigrants who are English-dominant but speak some Spanish.
The second biggest share of the Phoenix Latino population were classified as "Bicultural Latinos" at 24.9 percent. That category tends to be bilingual and may have been born in Latin America but immigrated to the U.S. at a young age.
The acculturation data from Phoenix correlated closely with national figures.
