Latinos immigrants in the US generate $1.6 trillion in GDP, the report says

Latinos immigrants in the US accounted for $1.6 trillion in GDP in 2023, contributing to the overall purchasing power of US Latinos at $4.1 trillion, according to a new research report in collaboration with Latin Donors. 2023 data is the most recent year included in this study.

The total US Latino product, which measured the economic impact of the cohort, rose 50% between 2015 and 2023, was boosted by increasing education, entrepreneurship and workforce participation, said the economist at Arizona State University, who conducted the study. For comparison, the estimated US non-latino GDP increased by 17% over the same time frame.

The report comes as the Trump administration is requesting unprecedented efforts to eliminate undocumented immigrants from the United States

California’s economy alone also saw $989 billion in Latino GDP in 2023, with over $1 trillion in 2025, according to the report. Texas, Florida and New York also have Latin GDP worth hundreds of millions of dollars each.

And Latino spending is making up for a larger share of the economy as a whole.

As baby boomers age, the share of spending decreases by about 4% per year, with US Latinos poised to bridge the spending gap, according to the report. The share of US consumption is up more than 3% per year. Actual consumer spending is up nearly 5% per year compared to 2.4% of non-Latino owing to population changes and increased disposable income.

“That’s very clear. If there’s a silver bullet (artificial intelligence) beyond the economy, it’s Latino consumers. They’re workers, entrepreneurs, consumers, and drive great growth across the entire sector of the US economy.”

“The speed of the rise of brands marketing to Latinos in the US as mainstream customers should be a wake-up call to all CEOs and CMOs,” said Beatrice Acevedo, CEO and co-founder of Smawells, on Wednesday’s stage at Velocity, the economic conference in Los Angeles, where a report on Latinos GDP was presented.

Acevedo highlighted companies that saw growth accelerate along with the share of American Latino customers. According to Acevedo:

The 2023 Modelo has become America’s No. 1 beer brand by overtaking Budweiser and winning 50% of the US Latino consumer market (Modelo lost its crown to Michelob Ultra this week).T-Mobile Take advantage of the growth in Latinx market share to make frogs a leap AT&T and Verizon It ranks number one in terms of subscriber growth.Dr. Pepper It has increased rapidly Pepsi Capture the second spot of soda behind Cora By doubling Latino consumer share over the past decade, the WNBA has dramatically expanded its US Latino audience on television, and has since grown all professional sports audiences.

But massive deportation could undermine business opportunities and derail their economic advances, experts said in Velocity.

Dennis Hoffman, professor of economics and lead author of the US Latino GDP Report, warned that as many as 8.3 million undocumented workers could lead to losses for more than 19.5 million workers due to losses in income and economic activity provided by undocumented workers.

“We need to modify the immigration system. I’m not proposing public boundaries. I’m not proposing to allow people to work permanently without paperwork. But our system is modifiable,” Hoffman said. “We sponsor productive, hardworking, undocumented workers and cannot suffer the pain that must arise if we actually do something like this (mass deportation).”

Hoffman said his simulations predict that total GDP could drop by $2.3 trillion or 7.7%.

Fix: This story was updated to fix KIA ranked 6th in new car sales among Hispanic buyers in 2024. Previous versions mischaracterized the rankings.