A man crosses the street in a nearly empty Times Square, which is usually very crowded on a weekday morning, Monday, March 23, 2020 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
A Tuesday post by Pew Research said that U.S. Latinos are more worried about the COVID-19 crisis and its impacts on personal finances, health and daily life than the overall U.S. population.
The findings were part of a new Pew survey that asked about the crisis.
“The spread of the coronavirus has the potential to hit many of the nation’s nearly 60 million Latinos particularly hard,” Pew noted. “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.”
According to Pew, U.S. Latinos are in line with the overall U.S. population when it pertains to the general economy, but there are bigger differences on questions regarding health, personal finances and daily life.
“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%),” Pew noted.
Even U.S. Latinos who identify as Republican show differences with Republicans overall.
“Around six-in-ten Hispanic Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (62%) say the coronavirus outbreak is a major threat to the health of the U.S. population, compared with 33% of Republicans and GOP leaners overall. Significant differences also exist between Hispanic Republicans and Republicans overall on whether they see the outbreak as a major threat to their personal financial situation (42% vs. 29%) and day-to-day life in their community (43% vs. 26%),” Pew noted.
This survey was conducted from March 10–16, a time where more and more states are calling for stricter restrictions on movement. Two of those states, California and New York, have some of the largest U.S. Latino populations in the country.
To learn more about Pew’s questions for this survey, click here. Pew also shared this survey’s methodology here.
[…] Pew Research Center found that 83 percent of Latinos, as compared to 77 percent of the overall U.S. population, consider the pandemic a major threat to their communities. […]