Latino population gains

Latinos now account for about one in five American children - up from one in 10 three decades ago - thanks largely to a huge influx of Mexican and Central American immigrants that began in 1980, a study released Thursday found. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

The American-born children of parents who arrived since the 1980s now make up a majority of Latino youngsters in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C.

This second generation of American-born children of at least one Latino immigrant parent now constitute 52 percent of the nation's 16 million Hispanic children, the study found.