Washington, DC—Nearly one in five teens and young adults in the United States is Latino, and three-quarters of these youth are U.S. citizens. These are some of the data outlined in America’s Tomorrow: A Profile of Latino Youth, a new report released by NCLR (National Council of La Raza), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S. The report examines the status of Hispanic youth in the U.S., ages 15 to 24—a population that is on the rise nationwide, from West Virginia to Alaska. According to the data, Latino youth experience high levels of poverty, high dropout rates, low graduation rates, high unemployment rates, and low rates of health insurance. Given that Hispanics will account for about 30% of the U.S. population by 2050, the ability of Latino youth to overcome these barriers today will directly affect the economic and social success of our nation in the future. The following statistics from the report show that Latino youth are very much a part of the fabric of our nation’s future, and the challenges they face must be addressed immediately: For more information, please visit www.nclr.org |www.facebook.com/nationalcounciloflaraza | www.myspace.com/nclr2008 | http://twitter.com/nclr. ###