LaRed Latina of the Intermountain Southwest.
SLC., Regional
Demographics:
According to the 1990 Census, Utah's population is close to
2 million and is projected to be over 3.5 million by the year 2020. Utah
along with Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico are considered the
fastest growing states in the union.
With a population of well over 1.3 million, the
Salt Lake
City Metropolitan Area ranks
as one of the largest and fastest growing
Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the Country.
Latinos comprise over 6 percent of the population in Utah
and represent the largest ethnic minority group in the State.
There are currently over 130,000 Hispanics living in Utah, and about 85 percent of them live in the Wasatch Front Area which constitutes the Salt Lake City/Ogden/Provo Metropolitan area.
Latinos are well represented in every private and public sector of the Salt Lake Metropolitan community.
Although the attrition rate among Latino high school students continues to be relatively high, there is a positive trend in higher education enrollment among youth in the Hispanic community.
Overall Latino Utahans have been riding the wave of prosperity that the State of Utah has been experiencing for the past ten years. This is evidenced by the fact that the middle class has been steadily increasing within the Latino Community.