Our Community

Where is the "Latino Community" of Philadelphia?

There are no political boundaries that define the Latino Community. In fact, Latinos live all over the city. However, there is an area of high Latino concentration in eastern North Philadelphia .

One way to define this area so that we can look up Census information is to choose those Census Tracts that have both a high number and a high proportion of Latinos. (A Census Tract is an area defined by the US Census Bureau and used to summarize information gathered through the 2000 Census.) For example, we can choose those Census Tracts that meet both of the following conditions:

1. The Census Tract contains more than 1000 Latinos
2. More than 40% of the population in the Census Tract is Latino.

Using these criteria, we can define 19 Census Tracts which lie together in eastern North Philadelphia . In order to describe a unified area, two additional Census tracts will be included to bring the total of the "Latino Community" to 21 Census Tracts. These two tracts are largely industrial and have a low population (and so have less than 1000 Latinos). However, of those who live there, more than 40% are Latinos.

Figure 1: The area of Philadelphia that has a large number and a large proportion of Latinos.

What are the Characteristics of the Latino Community in Eastern North Philadelphia?

Latino Community of Eastern North Philadelphia (by the definition of the above) contains 60,496 Latinos, or approximately 47% of all Latinos living in Philadelphia . The characteristics of the community can be determined by examining the 2000 Census data for the 21 Census Tracts. In the table below is a demographic comparison of this community with all Latinos in Philadelphia and all people in Philadelphia.

Table 1: A comparison of demographic characteristics for the Latino Community of Eastern North Philadelphia, all Latinos in Philadelphia, and all people in Philadelphia. All numbers have been rounded to one decimal place. Note that the question on the 2000 Census form for race (for example, White, African American, Asian American, etc.) was asked apart from the question for ethnicity (that is, Latino/Hispanic identity). Therefore, the categories of White, African American and some other race for the 21 Census Tracts and for all people in Philadelphia exclude Latinos. In the all Latinos in Philadelphia column, the race categories are those chosen by Latinos.