Director, Race and Ethnicity Research
Expertise:Global Migration and Demography, Hispanic Trends, Race and Ethnicity
Mark Hugo Lopez is director of race and ethnicity research at Pew Research Center, where he leads planning of the Center’s research agenda focused on chronicling the diverse, ever-changing racial and ethnic landscape of the United States. He is an expert on issues of racial and ethnic identity, Latino politics and culture, the U.S. Hispanic and Asian American populations, global and domestic immigration, and the U.S. demographic landscape. Lopez was previously the Center’s director of Global Migration and Demography, and of Hispanic research.
Lopez is the co-editor of “Adjusting to a World in Motion: Trends in Global Migration and Migration Policy.” He is a co-author of “The Future of the First Amendment” and has contributed chapters to several books about voting and young Latinos.
Prior to joining Pew Research Center, Lopez served as a research assistant professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy and as research director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).
Lopez received his doctorate in economics from Princeton University. He is an author of reports about the Hispanic electorate, Hispanic identity and immigration. Lopez frequently appears in national and international media in both Spanish and English.
As the nation’s economy contracted at a record rate in recent months, the group’s unemployment rate rose sharply, particularly among Hispanic women, and remains higher among Hispanic workers than U.S. workers overall.
About half of U.S. Hispanics said in our December 2019 survey that they had serious concerns about their place in the country.
The U.S. Hispanic population reached a record 60.6 million in 2019, up 930,000 over the previous year and up from 50.7 million in 2010.
About three-quarters of U.S. adults say undocumented immigrants mostly fill jobs U.S. citizens do not want.
68% of U.S. adults say the federal government has a responsibility to provide medical care to undocumented immigrants who have COVID-19.
The outbreak has altered life in the U.S. in many ways, but in key respects it has affected black and Hispanic Americans more than others.
Hispanics are more concerned than Americans overall about the threat COVID-19 poses to Americans’ health, their own finances and daily life.
Since 2000, the size of the immigrant electorate has nearly doubled. More than 23 million U.S. immigrants will be eligible to vote in the 2020 presidential election.
Most Latino registered voters (71%) say they want government to be more involved in solving the nation’s problems.
Latinos are expected for the first time to be the nation’s largest racial or ethnicity minority in a U.S. presidential election.
© 2024 Pew Research Center
