More than 70 million people in the United States identify as Hispanic, though federal rules, survey practices and personal identity do not always draw the group's boundaries in the same place.
A Pew Research Center analysis found that national origin remains the most common way Hispanic adults describe themselves, while race, language, ancestry and generation shape how people answer questions about identity.
The analysis combines U.S. Census Bureau data with Pew surveys of Hispanic adults. Its newest survey results come from a national poll conducted October 6-16, 2025, among 4,923 Hispanic adults in English and Spanish.
Respondents were recruited through random sampling of residential addresses. The sample included 1,125 members of Pew's American Trends Panel and 3,798 members of SSRS's Opinion Panel.
Federal definitions rely largely on self-identification
Federal law has required the government to collect and publish information about Americans of Spanish origin or descent for 50 years. The definition generally includes people who trace their origin to Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central or South America and other Spanish-speaking countries.
The Census Bureau began asking everyone in the country about Hispanic ethnicity in 1980. An earlier 1970 question asked only 5% of the population and undercounted Hispanics by about 1 million, in part because it omitted terms such as “Mexican American” and mistakenly counted some people who interpreted “Central or South American” as a U.S. region.
Most surveys, including Pew's, count people as Hispanic when they identify that way. The Census Bureau generally does the same but may recode answers when a write-in response conflicts with the selected category.
People with origins in Brazil, Belize, the Philippines and Portugal are generally not counted as Hispanic under federal standards because the definition is based on Spanish culture or origin. A processing error in the 2020 American Community Survey illustrates the effect of coding rules: at least 416,000 Brazilians were counted as Hispanic that year, compared with 14,000 in 2019 and 16,000 in 2021.
Hispanic ethnicity and race do not fit neatly apart
Federal standards treat Hispanic origin as an ethnicity rather than a race, meaning Hispanic people can be of any race. Many respondents, however, do not experience or describe those identities as separate.
In the 2024 American Community Survey, 23.4 million single-race Hispanics selected “some other race,” and many wrote in a Hispanic origin or nationality. Another 11.9 million selected White, while smaller numbers selected Native American, Black, Asian or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
An additional 29.4 million Hispanics were classified as multiracial in 2024, up from 3 million in 2010. Pew said much of that jump likely reflects census questionnaire and coding changes rather than a sudden shift in ancestry or self-understanding.
The largest increase came among people recorded as both White and “some other race.” That group grew from 1.6 million in 2010 to 25 million in 2024 after the Census Bureau changed the space available for detailed origins and how Hispanic responses to the race question were coded.
Skin color adds another dimension not used to decide who counts as Hispanic. In a 2021 Pew survey, 57% of Latino adults said skin color affects their daily experiences at least somewhat, 59% said lighter skin helps Latinos get ahead and 62% said darker skin makes advancement harder.
Pew's 2025 survey found that 13% of Hispanic adults consider themselves Afro-Latino. Pew noted that Afro-Latino identity may coexist with Hispanic identity, but some Afro-Latino adults do not identify as Hispanic.
National origin is the most common personal label
When asked how they most often describe themselves, 53% of Hispanic adults used their family's country of origin, either alone or with “American.” Another 27% used a broader term such as Hispanic, Latino, Latinx or Latine, while 18% described themselves only as American.
Asked which broad term they preferred for the population, 54% chose Hispanic and 30% chose Latino. Fourteen percent had no preference, and relatively few selected Latinx or Latine.
Language and family background are not universal requirements for belonging. In a 2022 survey, 78% said speaking Spanish is not necessary to be considered Hispanic, including 93% of primarily English-speaking Hispanics and 64% of Spanish-dominant Hispanics.
Earlier Pew surveys found similar flexibility around other traits. In 2019, 32% said having two Hispanic parents was essential to their identity, while the remainder called it important but not essential or not important. In 2015, 84% said a Spanish surname was unnecessary.
Intermarriage and generation affect identification
Among married Hispanics living with a spouse in 2024, 23% had a spouse who was not Hispanic. Thirty-two percent of Hispanic newlyweds married someone outside the group, including 44% of U.S.-born newlyweds and 15% of immigrant newlyweds.
Ancestry also does not always lead to Hispanic self-identification. Pew surveys in 2015 and 2016 found that 11% of adults with Hispanic ancestry, about 5 million people, did not identify as Hispanic or Latino.
Nearly all immigrants from Latin America or Spain identify as Hispanic, but that share declines across generations. By the fourth generation, when all four grandparents were born in the United States, only about half of adults with Hispanic ancestry identify as Hispanic.
Pew said the findings show why no single statistic or label fully captures Hispanic identity. Census counts remain essential for measuring population change, but the results depend on question wording, coding practices and how people understand their own ancestry, race and family history.
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