Both political parties are reaching out to Hispanic voters. It’s a demographic that will be important for Democrats and Republicans this election cycle. One conservative group says Hispanic-owned businesses are growing at a rate much faster than the national average. Libre Initiative claims:
“The startup rate of Hispanic businesses is three times the national rate.”
PolitiFact Florida examined the claim for its truthfulness. Writer Linda Qiu said the it rates HALF TRUE. According to Qiu, the trend is right on the money.
“We looked at census data and we found that between 1997 and 2002, Hispanic owned businesses were popping up at a rate of three times higher than the national average,” Qiu said.
But in the 12 years since 2002, those numbers slow down just a bit. The Libre Initiative pointed to a White House report on the Fiscal Year 2013 budget that included the same claim. But the report doesn't explain the numbers.
Census data, however, does give a fuller picture. According to the most recent available Census Bureau report in 2010, Hispanic-owned businesses grew at a rate that was a little more than twice as fast for the national average in that time period.
Because the trend is pretty consistent, PolitiFact Florida rated the claim HALF TRUE.
SOURCES: HISPANIC OWNED BUSINESS GROWTH
- PolitiFact's ruling
- Libre Initiative, website, Facebook and Twitter, accessed Aug. 11, 2014
- Geoscape, "Hispanic Businesses & Entrepreneurs Drive Growth in the New Economy," 2013 report
- White House, "An Economy Built to Last and Security for Latino Families," 2013
- U.S. Small Business Administration, "Latinos in Business: Government Resources for Hispanic Entrepreneurs," Aug. 19, 2013
- U.S. Census Bureau, "Hispanic-Owned firms: 2002," Aug. 2006
- U.S. Census Bureau, "Census Bureau Reports Hispanic-Owned Businesses Increase at More Than Double the National Rate," Sept. 21, 2010
- Associated Press, "Koch Brothers reach out to hispanics," Aug. 11, 2014
AHAA, "Hispanic Fast Facts," accessed Aug. 11, 2014 - Pew Research, Hispanic Trends Project, accessed Aug. 11, 2014
- ProPublica, How Dark Money Flows Through the Koch Network, Feb. 14, 2014
- Email interview, Steven Cruz, Libre Initiative spokesman, Aug. 11, 2014
- Email interview, Ammar Campa-Najjar, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce spokesman, Aug. 11, 2014
- Phone interview, Javier Palomarez, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce CEO, Aug. 11, 2014