The US cities with the largest Mexican population
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Los Angeles is home to more than 1.1 million people of Mexican origin, the largest Mexican population of any city in the United States by a wide margin. That's more Mexican residents than the entire population of all but a handful of American cities. The second-place city, San Antonio, has about 795,000, and after that the list runs straight through the Southwest and into the industrial Midwest.
These are counts, not percentage shares. They measure where the most Mexican Americans actually live, which is big cities, rather than where they make up the biggest percentage in a town, which tends to be small border communities. Here are the twelve cities with the largest Mexican-origin populations.
| Rank | City | Mexican population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles, CA | 1,137,265 |
| 2 | San Antonio, TX | 795,480 |
| 3 | Houston, TX | 654,491 |
| 4 | Phoenix, AZ | 600,987 |
| 5 | Chicago, IL | 582,711 |
| 6 | El Paso, TX | 515,146 |
| 7 | Dallas, TX | 437,505 |
| 8 | San Diego, CA | 347,362 |
| 9 | New York, NY | 341,040 |
| 10 | Fort Worth, TX | 275,451 |
| 11 | Fresno, CA | 257,138 |
| 12 | San Jose, CA | 250,151 |
Texas and California dominate
Ten of these twelve cities are in Texas or California, the two states that share the longest border with Mexico and the deepest history with it. Texas alone has five cities in the top ten. The exceptions tell their own stories: Chicago, at number five, built its Mexican community around rail yards, steel mills, and meatpacking a century ago, and it remains the largest Mexican population outside the Southwest. New York, at number nine, is the newer arrival, a community that grew fast in recent decades and now rivals cities on the border.
El Paso is the one that ranks differently by share than by count. It sits sixth in raw numbers, but because it's a mid-sized city where Mexican Americans are the majority, it ranks far higher as a percentage of the population than Los Angeles or Chicago do. Count answers "where do the most Mexican Americans live." Share answers "where are they the biggest part of town." They're different questions, and the border cities dominate the second one.
Mexican Americans are by far the largest Hispanic origin group in the country, which is why this list also tracks closely with the largest Hispanic populations overall. The national picture, plus income, age, and education for the group, is on the Mexican Americans origin page. The full ranked list of every city is at largest Mexican population cities.
Sources
Figures are people of Mexican origin from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, table B03001, which counts Hispanic origin regardless of race. Counts for large cities carry smaller margins of error than those for small places.
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Which US city has the largest Mexican population?
Los Angeles has the largest Mexican-origin population of any US city, with about 1.14 million people, far ahead of second-place San Antonio at roughly 795,000. The figures count people of Mexican origin from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.
Which states have the most cities with large Mexican populations?
Texas and California dominate, holding ten of the twelve cities with the largest Mexican populations. Texas alone has five cities in the top ten. The two exceptions are Chicago, which built its community around rail yards and steel mills a century ago, and New York, a faster and more recent arrival.
Why does El Paso rank differently by share than by count?
El Paso is sixth by raw count, but because it is a mid-sized city where Mexican Americans are the majority, it ranks much higher as a percentage of the population. Count measures where the most Mexican Americans live, which favors big cities, while share measures where they make up the largest part of town, which favors border cities.
