District-area Latinos population profile is uncharacteristic of Hispanics nationwide:

According to official Census figures in 2002, of the District's 564,326 residents, 53,289 (9.4 percent) are Latino, although due to census undercount the figure is closer to 13 percent. Latinos in the District demonstrated a 56 percent growth rate from 1990 to 2002, making them the fastest growing ethnic minority in the District. By the year 2010, the District will have an estimated 70,000 Latino residents.

As a whole, the population size of children in the District decreased between 1990 and 2000 by 3 percent, while the population of Latino children grew by 66 percent.

Residency patterns for Latinos show a concentration in Wards 1 and 4, with marginal increases in Wards 5 and 6, and declines in Wards 2 and 8. Almost half (46.3 percent) of DC Latinos live in Ward 1 neighborhoods. Within Ward 1, three clusters (Kalorama Heights/Adams Morgan/Lanier Heights, Mount Pleasant/Columbia Heights/Pleasant Plains/Park View, and Howard University/Cardozo/Shaw/Le Droit Park) have Latino population of 10 percent or more. The same case is within Ward 4 for Logan Circle/Shaw cluster; and within Ward 4 for Brightwood/Manor Park/Takoma and Brightwood Park/Crestwood/Petworth/16th St. Heights. In 2001, by neighborhood cluster, Columbia Heights had the highest number of births (809), followed by Congress Heights (598) and Brightwood Park (581).

Much of DC's Latino population growth is due to immigration rather than fertility. Latino population growth from 1970 to 2000 reflects the newcomer characteristics of the population, including the concentration of Latinos in certain neighborhoods, high proportion in productive and reproductive age groups, unstable sex ratios, linguistic isolation, and extended family structures.

Countries of origin predominantly Central American:

Over one-third of DC Latinos identified their country of origin as being in Central America and the vast majority from El Salvador. This pattern is in stark contrast to the rest of the Latino population in the US, which is mainly of Mexican, Puerto Rican or Cuba heritages. Estimates of the proportion of the immigrant community that is undocumented range from 5 percent to 15 percent

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