A total of 519,000 Hispanics of Peruvian origin resided in the United States in 2008, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
Peruvians in this statistical profile are people who self-identified as Hispanics of Peruvian origin; this means either they themselves are Peruvian immigrants or they trace their family
A total of 519,000 Hispanics of Peruvian origin resided in the United States in 2008, according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.
ancestry to Peru. Peruvians are the tenth-largest population of Hispanic origin living in the United States, accounting for 1.1% of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2008. Mexicans constituted 30.7 million, or 65.7%, of the Hispanic population.1
This statistical profile compares the demographic, income and economic characteristics of the Peruvian population with the characteristics of all Hispanics and the U.S. population overall. It is based on Pew Hispanic Center tabulations of the 2008 American Community Survey. Key facts include:
• Immigration status. Seven-in-ten Peruvians (69.3%) in the United States are foreign born compared with 38.1% of Hispanics and 12.5% of the U.S. population overall. Two-thirds of immigrants from Peru (66.1%) arrived in the U.S. in 1990 or later. Four-in-ten Peruvian immigrants (42.3%) are U.S. citizens.
• Language. A majority of Peruvians (55.1%) speak English proficiently.2 Some 44.9% of Peruvians ages 5 and older report speaking English less than very well, compared with 37.3% of all Hispanics.
• Age. Peruvians are similar in age to the U.S. population and older than Hispanics overall. The median age of Peruvians is 35; the median ages of the U.S. population and all Hispanics are 36 and 27, respectively.
• Marital status. Peruvians are more likely than Hispanics overall to be married—50.7% versus 46.5%. [continued on page 2]
1 comment for “Who are the Peruvians?”