According to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau population estimates that was released Monday (July 8), the Latinx population in the United States increased by 1.2 million in 2018, reaching a record-breaking 59.9 million. From 2008 to 2018, the Latinx community accounted for more than half (52 percent) of all U.S. population growth, proving that the country is continuing to diversify both racially and ethnically.

Some other key takeaways from Pew about the growth of the Latinx population:

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• While 2018 saw the largest number thus far, annual growth has slowed as births have declined and immigration, particularly from Mexico, has decreased. Only Asian Americans have seen faster population growth than Latinx people, with a 2.8 percent growth rate between 2015 and 2018.
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• The South saw the fastest Latinx population growth of any U.S. region and grew by one-third to 22.7 million, in 2018. However, the “states with the fastest Latinx population growth tend to have relatively small [Latinx] populations—and are not in the South,” Pew reports. That includes North Dakota, whose Latinx population grew by 135 percent, making it the state with the fastest growth rate in the country.
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• Latinx are among the youngest in the U.S., but the community saw one of the largest increases in median age over the past decade from 27 to 30.
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• Puerto Rico’s population decreased by half a million over the decade and 100,000 between 2017 and 2018, as a result of hurricanes Maria and Irma, which forced many to leave the island. 

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Read the full report here.