The Latino community added more than 30,000 residents between 2024 and 2025 and now exceeds 1.4 million people in the state. Although growth continues, new estimates show a slowdown during a period that coincided with the first months of the current Trump administration and the tightening of immigration policy federal.
North Carolina's Hispanic population continues to grow, but not at the same rate as in recent years. New estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show that the Latino community increased by 30,179 people between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, an annual growth rate of 4.5%.
Although it is one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the state, the figure represents a marked slowdown: the previous year the Hispanic population had grown by 6.6%, and in the period prior to that, by 5.1%.
The data was released last month by the Census Bureau and analyzed by The News & ObserverThey cover the first six months of President Donald Trump's current administration, marked by a hardening of immigration policies, the closure of the southern border, and the increase in deportations of undocumented immigrants. However, Census estimates do not distinguish between people with and without legal immigration status, so they do not allow for establishing a direct relationship between these policies and the observed slowdown.
Hispanic population in North Carolina: a community that already exceeds 1.4 million people
Beyond the specific slowdown, the contextual data is compelling: North Carolina already has 1.4 million Hispanic residents, almost 13% of the state's 11.2 million inhabitants.
From 2020The Hispanic population grew by 26% overall, one of the highest growth rates of any ethnic group in the state. Along with the non-Hispanic Asian community, Latinos account for more than half of the nearly 800,000 new residents North Carolina added between 2020 and 2025.
In fact, looking at cumulative growth since 2020, the non-Hispanic Asian community grew even faster than the Hispanic community: 32.1% versus 26.2%. In absolute terms, however, the Hispanic community remains by far the largest minority group in the state.
North Carolina's youngest community
One of the most revealing findings in the report concerns age. According to the analysis by The News & Observer, along with the Asian community, the Hispanic population is one of the largest contributors to slowing the state's aging, because both communities are considerably younger than the white and African American populations, which have historically made up the majority of North Carolina's residents.
The numbers clearly confirm this: among Hispanics, only 5.3% are 65 years of age or older, well below the 24.1% that this age group represents among the non-Hispanic white population. And although the proportion of those under 18 within the Hispanic community decreased from 35.5% in 2020 to 32.6% in 2025, it remains, by a wide margin, the youngest age group in the state.
Where does the Hispanic community of North Carolina live?
Census data, broken down by county, shows that the Hispanic presence in North Carolina actually tells two different stories, depending on whether you look at the proportion of the population or the number of people.
On one hand, there is a group of rural counties in the eastern part of the state where Hispanics make up a much larger proportion of the total population than the state average (13%). In Duplin, they reach 26.0%, in Sampson 25.3%, and in Lee 23.7%, followed by Johnston (18.3%), Mecklenburg (17.9%), Durham and Hoke (17.2% each), and Alamance (16.9%). This is no coincidence: Duplin and Sampson are the heart of North Carolina's agricultural and poultry industries, a sector that has historically employed a large portion of the state's immigrant workforce.
On the other hand, if we look at the absolute number of people instead of the percentage, the picture changes completely: the Hispanic community is concentrated primarily in the metropolitan area. Mecklenburg (with an estimated 220,776 Hispanic residents) and Wake (153,383) together account for more than a quarter of the entire Hispanic population of the state. They are followed, at a greater distance, by Forsyth (66,283), Guilford (62,408), Durham (59,725), and Cumberland (48,402).
In other words, the rural, agricultural counties of the east have the largest relative proportion of Hispanics within their total population. The major urban centers, led by Charlotte (Mecklenburg) and the Raleigh area (Wake), are where, in absolute terms, the majority of North Carolina's Hispanics live.
From which countries do the Latino immigrants living in North Carolina come?
How many Latinos are there in North Carolina, and in which counties is the population concentrated?
This trend is also observed at the national level.
The slowdown in Hispanic growth was not unique to North Carolina. Across the United States, the Hispanic population also continued to increase, but at a slower pace: annual growth fell from around 3.5% to 2% during the first half of Donald Trump's administration.
Although the estimates do not allow us to identify the exact causes of this change, the period coincides with a reduction in international migration in general and with the tightening of federal immigration policies during the first months of the Trump administration.
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After the storm
A year ago, Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina. The Latino community responded with something stronger than the storm: solidarity.
🎧 In this episode, learn how Latino organizations transformed crisis into resilience.
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