Iowa’s Changing Ethnicity,1990-2000

Several states in the Great Plains Region of the United States have experienced rapid growth of their Hispanic and Asian populations during the 1990s. Immigration, internal migration within the US, and natural increase had each contributed to this growth. This paper examines the growth of the Asian and Hispanic population in the 99 counties of Iowa between 1990 and 2000 as well as the spatial distribution of the two groups for 2000. The data are then disaggregated by ethnic subgroup and the growth rates examined for each subgroup within the Asian and Hispanic categories. Finally, the percentage of the population residing in metropolitan versus nonmetropolitan counties for 1990 and 2000 is compared for each ethnic subgroup to determine if the subgroup is becoming more or less concentrated in metropolitan areas. The results indicated that not only did Hispanics have a higher overall growth rate than their Asian counterparts during the 1990s, but they were more dispersed throughout Iowa as of 2000. The most rapidly growing Asian subgroups during the 1990s were the Indians and Vietnamese. These two groups also displayed rapid gains in the percentage of their populations residing in metropolitan counties. The Japanese population in Iowa actually experienced a decline, while Koreans, Filipinos, and Chinese grew at the Asian average. Mexicans and Other Hispanics had comparable overall growth rates and similar distributional patterns. Over the study period, the Hispanic population diffused down the urban hierarchy while Asians continued to be concentrated in metropolitan counties