Cinco de Mayo celebrates the legendary Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, in which a Mexican force of 4,500 men faced 6,000 well-trained French soldiers. The battle lasted four hours and ended in a victory for the Mexican army under Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza. Along with Mexican Independence Day on Sept. 16, Cinco de Mayo has become a time to celebrate Mexican heritage and culture.
Here are more statistics about U.S. residents of Mexican origin from the U.S. Census Bureau:
Population
- In 2006 there were 28.3 million U.S. residents of Mexican origin. These residents constituted nine percent of the nation’s total population and 64 percent of the Hispanic population.
- There are 17.86 million people of Mexican origin who lived either in California (10.84 million) or Texas (7.02 million). People of Mexican origin made up more than one-quarter of the residents of these two states.
- Median age of people in the United States of Mexican descent is 25.7. This compares with 36.4 years for the population as a whole.
- More than 630,000 Mexican-Americans are U.S. military veterans.
- More than 1.2 million people of Mexican descent age 25 and older have a bachelor’s degree or higher. This includes about 350,000 who have a graduate degree.
- Of employed civilians 16 and older of Mexican heritage, 14 percent work in managerial, professional or related occupations. In addition, 23 percent worked in service occupations, 20 percent in sales and office occupations, 19 percent in construction, extraction, maintenance and repair occupations, and 20 percent in production, transportation and material moving occupations.
- Sixty-nine percent of civilians 16 and older of Mexican origin in the labor force. The percentage was 65 percent for the population as a whole. There were 13 million people of Mexican heritage in the labor force, comprising nine percent of the total.
The source for the preceding statements is the 2006 American Community Survey.
Businesses
- There were 701,078 firms owned by people of Mexican origin in 2002. They comprised almost 45 percent of all Hispanic-owned firms. Among these Mexican-owned firms, 275,896 were in California and 235,735 in Texas. The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, Calif., combined statistical area had 174,292.
- Those firms saw $96.7 billion in sales and receipts in 2002.
The source for for the preceding statements is the report Hispanic-Owned Firms: 2002 from the U.S. Census Bureau.