Document Type
Research Report
Publication Date
1-1-2013
Abstract
This report provides a descriptive snapshot of selected economic, social, educational, and demographic indicators pertaining to Latinos in the cities of Holyoke, Chicopee, and Easthampton. It reflects a commitment by UMass Boston’s Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy to provide periodic updates on the growing Latino population in Massachusetts.
The report on Holyoke, Chicopee, and Easthampton is part of a larger series that covers fourteen other cities, or clusters of cities, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Each report analyzes data from the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Data are analyzed by Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA), which consists of a minimum population of 100,000 and is the smallest geographic area publically available for individual-level analysis. According to the 2010 Census, Chicopee accounted for nearly half of the population (49.7%) in the PUMA containing these cities, while Holyoke accounted for 35.9% and Easthampton 14.4%. The majority of the Latino population (68.7%) lived in Holyoke, while 29.2% lived in Chicopee and 2.1 % lived in Easthampton. Thus, the Latino statistics in this report will pertain principally to Holyoke and secondarily to Chicopee.
Since ACS data is collected from a sample of the population, there is some variation associated with each population estimate. In the bar graphs in this report, the ‘I’ that accompanies each bar represents the confidence interval for that estimate; we expect that another sample would generate an estimate within this interval 95% of the time.
In this series, Latinos are compared to non-Latino whites, non-Latino blacks, and Asians for selected demographic, economic, and social characteristics. The number of ethno-racial groups included in a particular analysis may vary; each ethnoracial group is included in the analysis only when the observed sample size is large enough to produce reliable population estimates. In this report, Latinos are compared primarily to non-Latino whites because the ACS did not include large enough sample sizes to produce reliable population estimates for the other ethnoracial groups.
Holyoke, Chicopee, and Easthampton are home to an estimated 27,574 Latinos, who account for 25.1% of the area’s population. Whites make up a larger percentage of the total population (69.0%), while blacks represent 2.5 % and Asians represent 1.4%.
Recommended Citation
Granberry, Phillip; Rustan, Sarah; and Karp, Faye, "Latinos in Massachusetts Selected Areas: Holyoke, Chicopee, and Easthampton" (2013). Gastón Institute Publications. 168.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/gaston_pubs/168