Writer Preliminary census numbers in the state reflected a huge rise in the number of Hispanic people living and working in Texas and Lewisville and surrounding areas were no exception. The rise, estimated at 176 percent, was not much of a surprise.
New numbers determine how federal money is delivered to states in some cases.
As defined by the U.S. Census Bureau, the 'Hispanic' designation is not racial, but ethnic. In Dallas alone, there was a 35.6 percent rise in people identifying themselves as Hispanic. In Texas overall, there was a rise totalling about 30.2 percent. In 1990, Denton County residents who defined themselves as Hispanic totalled 19,013. In 2000, the number jumped to 52,619 residents of Hispanic ethnicity, according to numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau.