State’s Latino Population Is Up 2 Million, U.S. Estimates

California’s Latino population, which represents one-third of the Latinos nationally, has increased by nearly 2 million since 1980, according to a Census Bureau estimate released Wednesday.

The bureau said that the nation’s total Latino population has grown by 39% since 1980, rising to a record 20.1 million. Latinos now make up 8.2% of the U.S. population and have a population growth rate that is five times that of non-Latinos, the bureau said.

Census Bureau spokesman Carmen Denavas said that half of the 6.7 million California residents of Latino origin are immigrants. Immigration accounted for about 50% of the national increase in the Latino population.

“This is our first estimate of over 20 million,” said bureau spokesman Jorge Del Pinal. “It’s up from about 14.5 million in 1980.”

While the Census Bureau estimate did not include specific Orange County figures, the National Planning Data Corp., a Los Angeles-based research firm, has estimated that the local Latino population has increased by 53% since 1980. Orange County Latinos totaled 286,339 or about 14.8% of the population in 1980 compared to an estimated 440,117--about 19.2%--in 1989.

Latinos account for 22.8% of North County residents, while they represent only 8.7% of the South County population.

The figures in the report are estimates and include illegal immigrants. There are no precise figures for the numbers of illegal immigrants in the state or the country, and estimates of the number vary widely.

California retains its rank as the state with by far the largest Latino population, followed by Texas, which is home to 21% of the nation’s Latinos. Next are New York with 10% and Florida with 8%. The report also identified Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado as having significant Latino populations.

Estimates are not prepared for every state because “Hispanics are not well spread out throughout the United States,” Del Pinal said.

In Los Angeles on Wednesday, Mayor Tom Bradley joined with Latino leaders and celebrities to kick off a city campaign designed to encourage Latino youths to stand and be counted in the 1990 Census.

“Tell your friends, tell your family that Hispanics must be counted to earn political power,” came a message shouted not from the mouth of a politician, but by Latin American rock star Jose Luis Rodriguez, who attended the event at Roosevelt High School.

And, based on the high-pitched screams of approval from hundreds of teen-agers, the words were well received.

The city of Los Angeles, bolstered with $600,000 in funding, has joined forces with a host of community and civic groups to find ways to reach traditionally under-counted groups, including Latinos, the homeless and those who live in overcrowded apartments.

Officials said they have targeted high school-age Latino youths because the students can pass along census information to their parents and push them to fill out forms for the April 1 head count.

As part of the campaign, schools in areas with large immigrant populations will be sent census lessons for classroom instruction throughout the campaign, which lasts until April 1.

The official 1980 count missed as many as 10% of U.S. Latinos, according to federal officials.

The Census Bureau report said that the largest segment of the Latino population is of Mexican descent, about 12.6 million. Residents of Central and South American origin total 2.5 million, while those of Puerto Rican descent total 2.3 million and those of Cuban descent account for 1.1 million. The remainder are of Spanish or other Latino origin.

While people of Mexican descent are the largest Latino group in the United States, they are not the fastest-growing segment, the report said.

Comparing estimates from 1982 and 1989, the bureau said that the number of Central and South Americans had increased by 67%. The “other Hispanic” category rose 31%, followed by Mexicans, up 30%, Puerto Ricans, 14%, and Cubans, 12%.

Times staff writers Carla Rivera and Stephanie Chavez contributed to this story from Costa Mesa and Los Angeles.