Hecho En USA: "Latinos Are Opening More Businesses Than Anyone Else In The US"

Latinos are the fastest-growing group of entrepreners in the U.S.

The number of Latino business owners has jumped 34% over the last decade, in comparison to 1% for all other business owners.

"Despite the opportunity gap between Latinos and other Americans, Latinos have become the fastest-growing small business owners across the U.S.," reports USA TODAY in feature that is part of the network's series Hecho en USA.

Despite the opportunity gap, Latino entrepreneurs are opening more small businesses than anyone else in the US – contributing about $500B to the economy every year.

There’s no doubt that Latinos are key to the prosperity and strength of our communities.https://t.co/BBfg0bWBrK

— Rep. Veronica Escobar (@RepEscobar) February 26, 2020

Immigrant or born in the USA, Latinos are hustlers, hungry and hard-working, willing to take risks for a better life, despite the odds stacked against them, the walls and systemic racism.

And the research proves it. 

A recent study by Stanford University reports that the number of Latino business owners in the US has shot up 34% in the last ten years, while the number of business owners generally increased just 1%.

According to USA TODAY:

The growing success of Latino small business owners comes as Latinos are increasingly becoming an economic force in the U.S. The same Stanford study found Latino-owned businesses contributed about $500 billion to the economy in annual sales.

A 2019 report to Congress based on data from 2017 found almost 60 million Latinos in the United States already account for $2.3 trillion in economic activity in total, which on its own would rank as the eighth-largest economy in the world. And Latinos are projected to make up 30% of the U.S. population by 2020, meaning the group's contributions are only likely to grow.

Latino-owned businesses employ more than 3 million people, according to the 2019 State of Latino Entrepreneurship report by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI), a Stanford University research initiative centered around Latinos in business. All told, Latino-owned businesses account for about 4% of U.S. business revenues and 5.5% of U.S. employment.

However the media may portray Latinos, we see in our own families and communities the true grit and entrepreneurial spirit that is at the heart of our shared culture. The only way to change their minds is to keep rising raza. 

Grinding all our lives. https://t.co/6ekxw5Q6Uf

— Carlos Enrique Alemán, Ph.D. (@Carlos_E_Aleman) February 25, 2020

Hecho en USA focuses on the nation's growing Latino community. Roughly 80% of all Latinos living in the U.S. are American citizens, but media coverage of Hispanics tends to focus on immigration and crime, instead of how Latino families live, work and learn in their hometowns. Hecho en USA tells the stories of the nation’s 59.9 million Latinos – a growing economic and cultural force. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE.