Largest Latin American Ancestry in Canada and the United States

Latin America is a cultural concept representing the Americas, where Romance languages emanated from Latin are primarily spoken.

The term refers to areas in the Americas ruled by the Spanish, Portuguese, and French empires formed in the 19th century doesn’t have a precise definition. Today, this term is typically used to describe South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean islands.

Nowadays, the population of Latin America and the Caribbean is assessed at over 652 million.

The map below shows the largest Latin American ancestry in Canada and the United States, created by Reddit user abu_doubleu.

Latin American Canadians

Most Latin Americans in Canada are recent immigrants who arrived in the late 20th century, mainly from Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and Peru, for political reasons.

Top 10 countries of origin of Latin Americans in Canada

Brazil is the top origin country of the Canadian Latin American immigrant population. In 2016, approximately 120,000 immigrants were living in Canada were from there.

Rank	Country	Number of Immigrants	Percent of Latin American Immigrants	Percent of the Total Immigrant Population
1	Brazil	120,000	6.8	0.4
2	Mexico	80,585	18.8	1.1
3	Colombia	70,035	16.4	0.9
4	El Salvador	48,075	11.2	0.6
5	Peru	29,620	6.9	0.4
6	Chile	26,705	6.2	0.4
7	Venezuela	20,775	4.9	0.3
8	Argentina	19,425	4.5	0.3
9	Cuba	17,850	4.2	0.2
10	Guatemala	17,270	4.0	0.2

Latin American Canadian population in Canada by metropolitan area

According to the 2021 Census, most Latin Americans in Canada live in Toronto and Montreal.

Rank	Metropolitan area	Latin American population	Latin American population, %
1	Toronto	156,455	2.5
2	Montreal	137,850	3.2
3	Vancouver	51,500	2.0
4	Calgary	34,395	2.3
5	Edmonton	21,960	1.6
6	Ottawa	20,620	1.4
7	Hamilton	14,605	1.9

Latin Americans in the United States

The 2020 Census shows nearly 65.3 million Latin Americans live in the United States. It is the second fastest-growing ethnic group by percentage growth in the United States after Asian Americans.

Most largest Hispanic groups in the U.S. are Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Spanish, Salvadoran, Dominican, Brazilian, Guatemalan, Colombian, or Venezuelan.

Top 10 countries of origin of Latin Americans in the United States

Mexico is the top origin country of the Latin American population in the United States. In 2018, roughly 37 million Latin Americans in the U.S. self-identified as Mexican.

Rank	Country / Territory	Population	Percentage
1	Mexico	36,986,661	61.89
2	Puerto Rico	9,033,381	15.12
3	Cuba	2,363,532	3.95
4	El Salvador	2,306,774	3.86
5	Dominican Republic	2,082,857	3.49
6	Colombia	2,023,341	3.38
7	Guatemala	1,524,743	2.55
8	Spain	1,500,000	2.5
9	Honduras	963,930	1.61
10	Ecuador	717,995	1.20

States and territories with the highest populations of Latin Americans

Of the U.S.’s total Latin American population, 49 percent, or 21.5 million, reside in California or Texas. In 2022, New York City and Washington, D.C. began receiving substantial Latin American migrants from Texas, mainly Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, and Honduras.

Rank	State / Territory	Population	Percentage
1	California	15,754,608	40%
2	Texas	11,857,387	40%
3	Florida	5,830,915	26%
4	New York	3,864,337	19%
5	Puerto Rico	3,249,043	99%
6	Arizona	2,351,124	32%
7	Illinois	2,277,330	18%
8	New Jersey	1,991,635	21%
9	Colorado	1,293,214	22%
10	New Mexico	1,059,236	50%

Over half of the Latin American population is settled in the Southwest region, mainly composed of Mexican Americans. California and Texas have some of the largest populations of Mexicans and Central American Hispanics in the U.S.

The country’s Northeast region is dominated by Dominican Americans and Puerto Ricans, having the highest concentrations of both in the U.S.

Salvadoran Americans are the largest Latin American group in the Mid-Atlantic region, centered on the D.C.

Mexicans and Puerto Ricans dominate in both the Great Lakes and the South Atlantic states.

Cuban Americans and Puerto Ricans lead in Florida.

Mexicans dominate the rest of the nation, including the West, South Central, and Great Plains states.