A National Survey on Latino youth was released Friday by the Pew Hispanic Center. The study found that many Latinos have attitudes that contradict their behavior. For example, Latino youth care about education, hard work, career success, and are optimistic about their futures. However, they are also more likely to drop out of school, live in poverty, and become teen parents than other American youths. They also have high levels of exposure to gangs.

The survey was conducted on Aug 5 through Sept 16, 2009 and questioned 2,012 young people, ages 16-25. The study found that Latinos are not only the largest minority population in the U.S, but also the youngest. One-in-five school children in the U.S. are Latino and one-in-four newborns is Latino. These numbers alone, show that young Latinos will shape the kind of society American becomes in the 21st century.

The survey compared Latino youth of different backgrounds. It compared foreign born with native born, and first generation to later generations (second, third and higher).

98 percent of native-born Latino youth are twice as more proficient in English and 59 percent of them are enrolled in high school or college. Native born youth are also twice as likely as foreign born youth to have ties to a gang or to have gotten into a fight or carried a weapon in the past year.