The State of Latino Chicago 2010

This report examines the vital economic and fiscal contribution of Chicago’s burgeoning Latino population. At over 1.8 million, Latinos account for 22 percent of metropolitan Chicago’s 8.4 million people. In 2009 the percentage of Chicago-area Latinos who lived in the suburbs was 57 percent. With the highest labor participation rates of any group, Latinos comprise
20 percent of the metropolitan Chicago labor force and are poised to comprise 25 percent of the labor force by 2015. Latinos have under two-thirds the median household income of whites and their median income dropped 13 percent between 1999 and 2008, compared to an 8 percent drop for whites.

Despite these economic disparities, Latinos contribute to the economy as an increasingly important segment of the labor force and as business owners who strengthen the economic growth of the region. Latinos earned $26.2 billion in 2009, which translates to $12.3 billion in spending power in metropolitan Chicago once money saved, spent on taxes, or spent outside the region is deducted. When added to the indirect impact of spending on goods and services stimulated by Latino consumption, that $12.3 billion in Latino spending power yields a total impact of $23 billion on the metropolitan Chicago economy.

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