California Latino GDP Surges Past $1 Trillion

2025 California Latino GDP Report reveals that without Latinos, California’s GDP would be merely the world’s 8th largest

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, July 23, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- New data from researchers at Cal Lutheran and UCLA document substantial economic premiums, specifically growth premiums, enjoyed by Latinos relative to Non-Latinos in California. These premiums exist across a wide range of economic indicators — population and labor force, labor force participation, educational attainment, consumption and more.

And Latino economic premiums are large. For example, California’s Latino labor force is growing 15 times faster than the Non-Latino labor force. Latino educational attainment is growing 3.4 times faster than that of Non-Latinos. And California Latinos are 5.6% more likely to be actively working than their Non-Latino counterparts. California Latinos also enjoy better health outcomes, with lower age-adjusted mortality across all five leading causes of death and a life expectancy that is more than two years longer than Non-Latinos’.

“Latinos’ participation in the California economy is more active, more intense than that of Non-Latinos,” said Matthew Fienup, Ph.D., executive director of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at Cal Lutheran and coauthor of the report. “The importance of rapid Latino growth rates, and the intensity of economic activity they represent, cannot be overstated. The vitality of the overall California economy depends on the intensity of the economic activity of Latinos.”

Stronger economic growth, or GDP growth, is associated with rising wages, higher standards of living and greater economic mobility across the economy. By driving economic growth in California, Latinos provide these benefits and opportunities for all. Understanding the drivers of growth and making the proper investments can secure even greater economic growth and the greater prosperity that it produces.

Highlights from the 2025 California Latino GDP Report
• In 2023, the California Latino GDP surpassed $1 trillion. Without Latinos, California’s GDP would be merely the eighth-largest GDP in the world.
• If California Latinos were an independent state, their GDP would be the equivalent of the nation’s sixth-largest state GDP, larger than the economy of Pennsylvania or Ohio.
• Since 2019, despite significant COVID-19-related mortality, California’s Latino GDP has grown more than two times faster than Non-Latino GDP.
• The top five Latino GDP industry sectors are Finance and Real Estate (where Latinos produced over $137 billion in output in 2023), Professional and Business Services ($109 billion), Government Services ($98 billion), Education and Healthcare ($81 billion) and Retail Trade ($80 billion).
• California’s Latino economy is more diversified than the broader state economy. In this way, Latinos provide a broad foundation of support and greater resilience for the state’s economy.
• Latinos living in California represent a $730 billion consumption market, larger than the economy of Virginia or Michigan.

The report also directs attention to the importance of California’s Latino immigrant population. In 2023, 41% of working-age Latinos living in California were immigrants. Applying that share to the California Latino GDP, the researchers estimate that Latino immigrants are responsible for nearly $400 billion in annual economic output in California. Together, immigrant and U.S.-born Latinos are drivers of economic growth and a source of resilience for the state economy.

“Latinos have been driving California’s economy for 250 years and will be California’s competitive edge for the remainder of the 21st century,“ said David Hayes-Bautista, Ph.D., distinguished professor of medicine at UCLA and coauthor of the report. “Latinos born in 2023 will enter the labor force by 2040 and will still be economically productive into the 2080s. We should maximize the state’s investment in young Latinos’ health and education. Anything that detracts from that investment detracts from California’s future.”

The 2025 California Latino GDP Report builds on research released earlier this year detailing the economic impact of U.S. Latinos on the nation’s economy. The 2025 U.S. Latino GDP, released in April, revealed that the direct economic output of U.S. Latinos surged past $4 trillion for the first time. At $4.1 trillion, the U.S. Latino GDP represents world’s fifth-largest GDP, larger than the entire economy of India. Since the onset of the COVID pandemic, the U.S. Latino GDP has been the single, fastest-growing among major economies, growing more rapidly than China’s GDP.

To download the full report, visit latinogdp.us. Reports for other geographies, including the 2025 U.S. Latino GDP Report, are also available.

Center for Economic Research & Forecasting (CERF)
CERF is a nationally recognized economic forecasting center. CERF economists Matthew Fienup, Ph.D., and Dan Hamilton, Ph.D., are members of the Wall Street Journal Economic Forecasting Survey, the National Association of Business Economics (NABE) Economic Outlook survey and the Fannie Mae (formerly Case-Schiller) Home Price Expectations Survey. They are recipients of the 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024 Crystal Ball Awards for the Fannie Mae forecast survey. CERF is housed at California Lutheran University, a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution.

Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture (CESLAC)
Since 1992, CESLAC has provided cutting-edge research, education and public information about Latinos, their health and their impact on California’s economy and society. CESLAC is a resource for community members, business leaders and policy makers who want to gain insightful research and information about Latinos. It offers unparalleled insight into Latino issues through an approach that combines cultural research, demographic trends and historical perspective.

History of the Latino GDP Project
The effort to calculate the Latino GDP began with David Hayes-Bautista in the early 2000s. His idea was to use established government data programs to calculate a robust summary statistic for the economic performance of U.S. Latinos. The original U.S. Latino GDP algorithm was developed by Hayes-Bautista with Werner Schink, former chief economist of the California EDD. They produced the inaugural U.S. Latino GDP Report in 2017. After Schink’s untimely passing, Hayes-Bautista sought out Cal Lutheran economists Dan Hamilton and Matthew Fienup. Together with UCLA's Paul Hsu, the team made refinements to the Latino GDP methodology and have produced annual Latino GDP Reports since 2019. With generous support from Bank of America, the Latino GDP Project was significantly expanded in 2021 and now includes calculation of the Latino GDP for targeted targeted states and major metro areas, as well as the inaugural U.S. Latina GDP Report.

Matthew Fienup
Cal Lutheran Center for Economic Research & Forecasting
+1 805-493-3668
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