Long Island's Latino population rises 120% — far more than NYC's — since 2000, CUNY report finds

Long Island’s Latino population has increased more than 120% since the turn of the century, compared with only about 12% in New York City, according to a report from the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.

The findings, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey and released earlier this year, show a decisive change in settlement patterns among the Hispanic population in the New York metropolitan region between 2000 and 2024.

In 2000, 60% of all Latinos in the metropolitan region lived in the five boroughs, the report  showed. By 2024, researchers found, that figure had declined to 46%.

And while the city’s total Latino population still increased by about 12% during that near quarter-century time frame — from 2.16 million to 2.42 million — the Hispanic population growth in suburban counties increased by almost 42%, according to Census data.

On Long Island, the Hispanic population grew 122% during that 24-year period, including an 143% increase in Suffolk County and a nearly 99% uptick in Nassau County, the data shows.

Suffolk now has 363,136 Hispanic residents,  and Nassau has 264,758, data shows.

"The suburbs have emerged as the primary destination for Latino population growth in the metropolitan area," said Laird Bergad, executive director of the center and the primary author of the study released earlier this year. "While the city continues to be home to the largest concentration of Latinos, its share of the regional population has declined substantially, representing a fundamental restructuring of Latino settlement patterns that began prior to 2000."

Majority in 7 LI hamlets

Experts contend Latinos have flocked to Long Island for many of the same reasons other groups have: improved work opportunities, high-performing schools and relatively affordable housing in communities where the Hispanics appear to be clustered.

Latinos make up a majority of the population in seven hamlets and villages on the Island as of 2020, according to Census data. Those areas include Brentwood, North Bay Shore, Central Islip, New Cassel, Flanders, Inwood and Hempstead Village.

Lawrence Levy, executive dean at Hofstra University’s National Center for Suburban Studies, said the growth of the Latino population on Long Island was not a surprise.

But its future trajectory remains in doubt, he said, in part because of the Trump administration's immigration policies. Census data figures include both legal and undocumented U.S. residents.

"It's pretty hard to predict the future of Latino growth because we're in an unprecedented period in terms of both policy and the processes that flow from it," Levy said. Immigration policies could affect local industries such as construction, and child and elder care, he noted.

The total Latino population increase in the metropolitan area was 48%, from 3.59 million in 2020 to 5.31 million in 2024, according to Census data. 

Nationally, the Census Bureau said Hispanics are powering a gain in population, accounting for "just under 71% of the overall growth of the United States population." 

"The Hispanic population is expanding at a substantially faster rate than the non-Hispanic population, primarily due to natural increase, that is, more births than deaths," Kristie S. Wilder, a demographer with the Census Bureau's population division, told Newsday in 2024.

Dominicans largest nationality

The Dominican population has become the largest Latino contingent in the region, rising 123% from a population of 544,795 in 2000 to 1,216,258 in 2024, according to Census data.

On Long Island, the Dominican population grew at more than twice that rate — from 21,071 in 2020 to 75,888 in 2024, an increase of more than 260%, figures show.

The Island surpassed, and even defied other population trends.

For example, while the metropolitan region saw a 11.5% total decline in its Puerto Rican population during that 24-year period, Long Island experienced a 20.4% population growth from the U.S. territory in the Caribbean, Census data indicates.

Since 2000, Long Island has also experienced a 217% increase in its Mexican population; a 211% bump among its Colombian residents; and a whopping 535% uptick in its Ecuadorian community — surpassing all other regions in each of the three categories.

Ecuadorians are also the fastest-growing nationality in the region, rising by 219% from 2000 to 2024, the data shows.

The study is part of the Latino Data Project, which has tracked economic and demographic changes affecting the Hispanic community nationwide since 2003.