A Demographic Portrait of the Latino Barrios in Chicago

Abstract

This paper explores the spatiotemporal demographic changes in Latino-majority neighborhoods in Chicago, and surrounding suburbs, from 1980 to 2010. Using 2010 normalized census tract boundaries, it highlights descriptive statistics to analyze demographic changes in Latino-majority census tracts. Two types of Latino-majority census tracts were operationalized: Latino barrios, where more than half the residents were classified as Latino, and hyper barrios, where more than three-quarters of residents were classified as Latino. The study resulted in three major findings: Latino-majority neighborhoods have increased threefold from 1980 to 2010; the majority of the increase in Latino-majority neighborhoods was due to an increase in Mexican residents; and over the past thirty years there has been a steady growth of Latino suburban barrios and hyper barrios.