Cinco de Mayo: Mexican-American Stats

Today (Thursday) is Cinco de Mayo, which “celebrates the legendary Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, in which a Mexican force of 4,500 men faced 6,000 well-trained French soldiers. The battle lasted four hours and ended in a victory for the Mexican army under Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza. Along with Mexican Independence Day on Sept. 16, Cinco de Mayo has become a time to celebrate Mexican heritage and culture” (source).

Here’s some quick facts about Mexican Americans (these stats* are from 2009):

• 31.7 million – Number of U.S. residents of Mexican origin in 2009. These residents constituted 10 percent of the nation’s total population and 66 percent of the Hispanic population.
• 25.6 – Median age of people in the United States of Mexican descent. This compared with 36.8 years for the population as a whole.
• 1.5 million – Number of people of Mexican descent 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher. This included about 404,000 who had a graduate or professional degree.
• 4.2 people – Average size of families with a householder of Mexican origin. The average size of all families was 3.2 people.
• $39,115 – Median income in 2009 for households with a householder of Mexican origin. For the population as a whole, the corresponding amount was $50,221.

*Source for the stats: U.S. Census Bureau’s “Newsroom: Facts for Features & Special Editions: Facts for Features: Cinco de Mayo“, these stats are taken from a section in that report which are from the 2009 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Selected Population Profile in the United States: Mexican.

A similar version of this was originally posted at the company that I work for’s product blog (Disclosure: the product deals w/ transparency, gov’t, & technology and we’re interested in accessibility for minorities).