Demographics of Hispanic and Latino Americans
The demographics of Hispanic and Latino Americans depict a population that is the second-largest ethnic group in the United States, 52 million people or 16.7% of the national population, of them, 47 Million are American citizens.
Hispanic–Latino naming dispute
Despite this, debates regarding the proper name of the perceived homogeneous population of US citizens with Latin American or Spanish background still abound, and are even more acute. To find out how much people agree or disagree with either term, many polls have been conducted. According to a December 2000 poll by Hispanic Trends, 65% of the registered voters preferred the word "Hispanic", while 30% chose to identify themselves as "Latino". Daniel David Arreola, in his book "Hispanic spaces, Latino places: community and cultural diversity in contemporary America", points out that many Latin Americans feel more comfortable identifying themselves with their country of origin: