Latinos Contributed $92 Billion to Arizona’s Economy

By Araceli Cruz

September 28, 2021

“In some ways, the Latinos in Arizona are even more impressive than Latinos in the eight states and Latinos broadly in the United States,” study author Matthew Fienup said last week during a presentation of the Arizona findings. 

Latinos are contributing billions to the state of Arizona, according to a new report by Bank of America. The report details the top eight states where Latinos are contributing the most. Those states include Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, and Texas. All these states combined had a $2.6 trillion contribution in 2018.

While this report shows data from a couple of years ago, the authors say that contribution from Latinos in the US continues to grow each year. 

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“In some ways, the Latinos in Arizona are even more impressive than Latinos in the eight states and Latinos broadly in the United States,” study author Matthew Fienup said last week during a presentation of the Arizona findings. 

The GDP (gross domestic product) report shows that Latinos in Arizona brought in $91.9 billion to the economy, which is more than the entire economic output of the state of New Hampshire.

Here’s a breakdown of Arizona’s top three Latino GDP sectors in 2018: 

  • 6.9% education and health care 
  • 12.9% finance and real estate
  • 11.8% professional and business services

The largest component of Arizona’s Latino GDP is personal consumption, bringing in $60.7 billion in Arizona in 2018.

Furthermore, another economic report shows just how much Latinos are thriving in Arizona. Two cities in Arizona in particular — Gilbert and Peoria — ranked in the top ten cities where Latinos fare best economically nationwide. Gilbert came in fourth, and Peoria in at eighth. 

The study, released by SmartAsset, shows that Gilbert is the fifth-largest municipality in the Phoenix metro area, and Latinos here have the highest median household income in the study, at $105,154. In addition, they have the ninth-highest homeownership rate, at 63.66%. 

Peoria ranks as one of the 10 biggest cities in the state of Arizona by both land area and population. Latinos here have the 11th-highest median household income at $78,671 and the eighth-highest homeownership rate at 64.57%. 

Because Peoria is also part of the Phoenix metro area, it ties Gilbert for the 64th-highest percentage of Latino business owners (6.10%). Other cities where Latinos fare the best in Arizona include Chandler (ranked #16), Surprise (ranked #19), and Scottsdale (ranked #21). 

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The median Latino household income in the top 10 is $25,000 higher than the overall average. In comparison, the average median Latino household income for all 120 cities in the study is $58,274, while the average for the top 10 is $83,708. And when compared with the bottom 10 cities in the report, Latinos in the top 10 average almost $45,000 more in median household income.

Author

  • Araceli Cruz

    Araceli is Copper Courier's social media manager. Her past work has been published in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Mic, The Cut, Zora, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and others.

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