America's Hispanic population is a diverse, rapidly-growing group of persons whose origins are Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Central or South America, or Spain. Between 1980 and 1989, when the non-Hispanic population increased by less than 8 percent, the Hispanic population grew by 39 percent. Immigration accounted for about one-half of the Hispanic increase. This short profile describes the social and economic characteristics of Hispanics in the United States and of the groups that together form the Hispanic population.