Latino Businesses Thrive In Nashville, Tennessee

Tennessee’s Latino population grew more than 134% in the past 10 years, according to the Census, and The Tennessean reports that this has created a unique environment that is particularly friendly to Latino business owners.

The Tennessean covered a poll in Forbes magazine that ranked Nashville as the third best metro area for minority entrepreneurs:

…Nashville’s immigrant population “soared 83 percent, to 107,000, between 2000 and 2008, the fastest growth rate among the nation’s largest cities,” adding that many of them have gone into business for themselves. The city ranks fourth among the nation’s top 52 markets for Hispanic self-employment, Forbes said…

That has led to a boom in Hispanic-owned businesses, which now total more than 1,400 in the Nashville area, up about 60 percent in just the past five years, he said. That’s in line with the growth of the Hispanic population, which is up 44 percent over the past 10 years. As of last year, one of every 10 Nashville-area residents is Hispanic.

This good ol’ entrepreneurial spirit is, as we’ve reported before, what enables Latinas to open businesses at a rate six times that of the rest of the population. Latino immigrants are obviously positively contributing to Nashville, Tennessee, which kind of puts a kink in that whole “immigrants ruin everything” argument.

What do you think?

Follow Sara Inés Calderón on Twitter @SaraChicaD

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