America’s youth are increasingly Hispanic

As your credit union seeks to reach a younger member, remember that strategy often will be synonymous with reaching a Hispanic member.

Beyond the Hispanic market’s youth, Hispanics are the largest, fastest-growing and one of the most untapped groups in the U.S. Here are five specific facts about Hispanic youth:

1. Hispanics are the largest and fastest-growing racial/ethnic minority group of children in the U.S. with 17.5 million Hispanic children. (U.S. Census Bureau)

2. One U.S. child in four is Hispanic.(Pew Research Hispanic Trends Project)
3. By 2050, more than one in three U.S. children will be Hispanic. (Child Trends, America’s Hispanic Children, 2014)
4. More than 90 percent of U.S. Hispanic children are U.S.-born citizens.(U.S. Census Bureau)

5. More than 70 percent of Hispanic children have family origins in Mexico. (Child Trends, America’s Hispanic Children, 2014)

Now is an ideal time to work at building relationships with the young people in your local area. In fact, April offers two opportunities for credit unions to execute youth-membership strategies. National Credit Union Youth Month is celebrated in April, as are many Hispanic communities’ Children’s Day activities.

Children’s Day events can be a great place to start as your teams look to connect with Hispanic youth and their families. Children’s Day is celebrated in many places around the world on various days; in Mexico, “El Día Del Niño” is celebrated on April 30. To coincide with the holiday in Mexico, many U.S. Hispanic communities also celebrate Children’s Day during the month of April. Many of these events seek to recognize children and families and pose an opportunity for your credit union to engage with Hispanic families as a part of National Credit Union Youth Month.

April is also an ideal time to bring awareness about culturally relevant youth-focused products, such as savings accounts, education loans and financial education programs that have the Hispanic consumer in mind. Hispanic parents and grandparents, too, may benefit as they witness the healthy relationship budding between their children and a local credit union. As Hispanic youth get older, they have more of an influence on their foreign-born parents and therefore marketing and outreach campaigns that target both youth and their parents in a culturally relevant way are very effective.

While many Hispanic youth are native-born and are growing up in bilingual households, they continue to learn their initial financial behaviors from their parents and grandparents in many cases. These individuals may be foreign-born and not familiar with or trusting of traditional financial institutions. For this reason, it’s incredibly important to ensure your messages are culturally relevant, in-language and incorporate information for parents, as well as children.

Part of the draw to serving Hispanic consumers – particularly for credit unions who struggle with aging memberships – is the unmatched youth of the U.S. Hispanic market. As the Hispanic community continues to grow at a fast pace, so does the market’s influence and purchasing power. For these reasons, targeting Hispanic families with culturally relevant strategies for both adults and youth is a smart approach for credit union leaders who want to introduce their cooperative to the next generation of financial-service consumers.