New census data shows the Latino population in Iowa increased by 116 percent from 2000 to 2015 which is a little more than 96-thousand (96,147) people. Latinos make up just under six percent of Iowa’s population, making them the largest minority group in the state. Thirty-two percent of the Latinos in Iowa were not born in this country. Seventy-eight percent of them came to Iowa from Mexico.

The median age of Latinos in Iowa is 22-point-two, while the state median age is thirty-eight-point-one. The median income of Latino households in 2015 was a little more than 38-thousand dollars, while the statewide median household income was nearly 55-thousand dollars (54,736.) The poverty rate was 25-point-six percent, while the corresponding rate for Iowa is 12-point-two percent.

The average family size for the Iowa Latino population in 2015 was three-point-eight-two, compared to the overall average family size in the state of two-point-nine-nine (2.99) Over half of the growth in Iowa’s Latino population from 2000-2015 occurred in seven counties: Polk, Woodbury, Johnson, Marshall, Scott, Pottawattamie, and Linn.

Polk County had the largest overall population of Latinos at 21-point-four percent. The Latino population in Ringgold County increased by 731 percent and by 652 percent in Lyon county between 2000 and 2015. When it comes to the overall population, 27-point-four percent of all residents of Crawford County were Latino, followed by Buena Vista (24.6%), Marshall (20.7%), Muscatine (17.5%), and Louisa (16.2%).

(Radio Iowa)