Hispanic population small but booming in Tennessee

“That’s a really large relative increase,” said Bill Fox, director of the University of Tennessee’s Center for Business and Economic Research. “The population is not big on national standards (compared with other states), but it’s a big change.”

The total Tennessee population in 2004 was more than 5.9 million. That’s up roughly 3.5 percent from the 5.7 million residents counted in 2000.

Tennessee’s racial and ethic breakdown is 78.1 percent white, 17.2 percent black, 2.8 percent Hispanic and 1.4 percent Asian, according to census numbers.

California leads the nation with the highest Hispanic population and growth. Tennessee has 167,000 Hispanic residents and ranks 38th overall in percentage of Hispanics.

Yuri Cunza, president of the Nashville Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, calls the new Hispanic population numbers for Tennessee “conservative” because a number of illegal workers likely weren’t included.

“I think there has been an explosive growth, and there is unpredictable permanence in this community,” Cunza said.

Tennessee’s historically low Hispanic population grew 286 percent during the 1990s.

Demographer William Frey with the Brookings Institution in Washington said other diversity is keeping the Hispanic percentage small.

“As much as a diverse population is being touted as a new thing, … all Southern states except Florida and Texas have more blacks than Hispanics,” Frey said. “There is a huge black migration to the South, and that can be overlooked because of the Hispanic movement.”