Number progressions can be deceiving and surprising. Thank you to Eric D. who reminded me of “The Wheat and the Chessboard” example, guaranteed to surprise anyone. What is also surprising is that between 2022 and 2023, the Hispanic population accounted for nearly 71 percent of the overall growth of the United States population, driven primarily by Hispanic births, according to newly released Vintage 2023 Population Estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Hispanics of any race grew to just over 65 million, an increase of 1.16 million (1.8 percent) from the prior year. This growth significantly contributed to the nation’s total population gain of 1.64 million in 2023. The annual increase of 1.8 percent was in sharp contrast to the 0.2 percent increase in the non-Hispanic population, whose growth was tempered by a decline among non-Hispanic Whites, the largest demographic within the non-Hispanic category and the only one to experience a population loss. By the way, we should celebrate our differences… vive la difference: The top racial or ethnic groups for the United States was the “White alone non-Hispanic” population (58%, down from 64% in 2010), “Hispanic or Latino” population (19% of the total population), and then “Black or African American alone non-Hispanic” population was the third-largest group at 12%. (Today’s podcast can be found here and this week’s podcasts are sponsored by Visio Lending. Visio, which has a top-notch broker program, is the nation’s premier lender for buy and hold investors with over 2.5 billion closed loans for single-family rental properties, including vacation rentals. Hear an Interview with Garrett, McAuley & Co.’s Joe Garrett on GSE reform, the CFPB under Trump 2.0, and what it takes to run a profitable mortgage company in this environment.)