NEW YORK, December 5, 2022—A new report published today by the Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies (CLACLS) at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY) shows that median household income among Latinos in Corona, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights increased by 11.8% between 1990 and 2019, while the city’s median income increased by 27.7%.
The report, titled “The Socioeconomic Background of the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City: Latinos in Corona, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights, 1990-2019,” compares the socioeconomic conditions among Latinos in these neighborhoods in terms of sex, age, income, poverty, and education.
While the overall poverty rates in the city decreased since 1990, the percentage of Latinos living in poverty in these neighborhoods was the highest of all race and ethnic groups at 13.9%.
These figures are right before the pandemic hit and present an unequal picture, especially as Corona, Elmhurst, and Jackson Heights had some of the highest rates of COVID-19 prevalence than the rest of the city (1 in 19 people, 1 in 16, and 1 in 19 respectively).
Other key findings:
Median household income among Latinos in these three neighborhoods was $73,500 in 2019, going up from $65,736 in 1990.
The percentages of naturalized citizens and citizens by birth increased among Latinos in these areas, going from 16.4% to 22.8% and 31.2% to 37.7% respectively.
High-school non-completion rates decreased from 46.8% to 33.9% over the same period. Conversely, higher education rates increased only slightly from 9.0% to 10.6%.
Important differences were found among the five largest Latino nationalities in the city. Latinos in NYC are increasingly more diverse in terms of national groups, but these groups mirror the general trends discussed earlier.
This report presents trends in poverty levels for the city of New York up to before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from the moment of the pandemic was not available at the time of this analysis.
Contact Sebastián Villamizar-Santamaría, Director of Quantitative Research, for a PDF of the report at svillamizarsantamaria@gradcenter.cuny.edu.
About The Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latino Studies
The core mission of CLACLS is to actively support and advance the study of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinos in the U.S. in the doctoral programs of The Graduate Center, and to provide opportunities for Latino students at the Ph.D. level. CLACLS’s flagship program is the Latino Data Project, established in 2003 by Laird W. Bergad founding and current CLACLS director. Bergad is a distinguished professor in the Department of Latin American, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies at Lehman College and with the Ph.D. Program in History at The Graduate Center. The Latino Data Project conducts detailed quantitative research on the Latino population of the United States and New York City metropolitan region, analyzing raw data files produced by the U.S. Census Bureau and other government agencies.
About The Graduate Center, CUNY
The Graduate Center of The City University of New York (CUNY) is a leader in public graduate education devoted to enhancing the public good through pioneering research, serious learning, and reasoned debate. The Graduate Center offers ambitious students more than 40 doctoral and master’s programs of the highest caliber, taught by top faculty from throughout CUNY — the nation’s largest public urban university. Through its nearly 40 centers, institutes, and initiatives, including its Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC), The Graduate Center influences public policy and discourse and shapes innovation. The Graduate Center’s extensive public programs make it a home for culture and conversation.
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