The release of the state's 2000 Census figures shows that Hispanics are Mississippi's fastest-growing population group. Overall, the number of Hispanic residents in the state more than doubled from 15,931 in 1990 to 39,569 in 2000. When it released population estimates for the state in July 1999, the Census Bureau had the number of Hispanic residents at about 25,000, or roughly 1 percent of the total population. I have 75 to 100 people come in my store every day, and many of them are new. Hispanic people are considered an ethnic group and can be of any race.
Local figures show a significant increase in the Hispanic population.
The number of Hispanic residents was 868 in Forrest County, up from 1990's 656. The Hispanic population grew from 286 to 415 in Lamar County. In the last 10 years, the Hispanic population in Hattiesburg grew from 519 to 603. Mariela Santos and her husband Gerardo credit the English Language Institute at the University of Southern Mississippi for bringing them to the area 20 years ago from Venezuela. Economical and political, everything is more secure here.