Hispanics more likely than Americans overall to see COVID-19 as a major threat to health and finances

Many US Latinos were just now seeing their personal income bounce back after the Great Recession, then this.

Hispanics are more concerned than Americans overall about the threat the COVID-19 outbreak poses to the health of the U.S. population, their own financial situation and the day-to-day life of their local community, according to a new survey fielded as part of Pew Research Center’s Election News Pathways project.

The spread of the coronavirus has the potential to hit many of the nation’s nearly 60 million Latinos particularly hard. Although the Latino unemployment rate dipped at the end of 2019 to a near record low, many Latinos work in the leisure, hospitality and other service industries – and they are less likely to have health insurance. Latinos were hit especially hard by the Great Recession more than a decade ago, and some workers have only recently seen their median personal incomes bounce back and exceed pre-recession levels.

Large majorities of Hispanics and the general public (both 70%) say the new coronavirus poses a major threat to the U.S. economy. But on other questions, Latinos’ concerns are more pronounced than those of the wider public. About two-thirds (65%) of Hispanic adults say the coronavirus outbreak is a major threat to the health of the U.S. population as a whole, compared with about half (47%) of the general public. More Hispanics than Americans overall say the outbreak is a major threat to their personal financial situation (50% vs. 34%), day-to-day life in their local community (49% vs. 36%) and their personal health (39% vs. 27%).

Subscribe today!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Must Read

The EPA’s soot pollution update falls dangerously short for Latinos

Victor Landa March 12, 2023

On Jan. 6, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposal to strengthen the annual standards for fine particulate matter, commonly known as soot, from 12 ug/m3 to between 9 and 10 […]

Opinion: In Hollywood, Latinos are still waiting for their close-up

Victor Landa

Carolyn Curiel served as a U.S. ambassador and White House senior speechwriter in the Clinton administration. Latinos will be an integral part of the Academy Awards on Sunday. You likely […]

Republicans are winning more Latino votes. But rising turnout still benefits Dems.

Victor Landa

The red wave never came to pass in 2022 — but there was a noticeable shift among Latino voters in the midterms, who still tilted toward Democrats overall but reached […]

Latino Republicans push back on party’s immigration agenda

Victor Landa March 15, 2023

MIAMI (AP) — More than half of the residents in the slice of Miami that includes Little Havana were born abroad. And when Republican U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar ran […]

Latino families face tough circumstances with ballooning college debt

Victor Landa

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on palabra, the digital news site by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. By Rich Tenorio Iliana Panameño wanted to get a master’s degree in social […]

Young Latino leaders unlikely to see Jews as targets of systemic discrimination, says poll

Victor Landa March 20, 2023

Latino millennial and Gen-Z thought leaders are increasingly unlikely to see Jews as the target of systemic discrimination, according to a new survey commissioned by the American Jewish Committee (AJC). […]

Racial equity news coverage of Latinos is lacking, a new study finds

Victor Landa

Latinos are barely part of the conversation in newspapers and online media outlets covering the issue of racial equity and racism, a new study has found. Only about 6% of […]