Latinos in Santa Paula Struggle to Achieve Higher Education and Higher Pay

Spending a day in Santa Paula can help one see firsthand that Santa Paula is the home of a large population of immigrants or simply of Latino descent. According to the Census Reporter, in the foreign born population category, 95% have Latin America as their place of birth.

In further analyzing Santa Paula’s data, two other data sets I also found particularly interesting in the Census Reporter are educational attainment and the percentage of people who live in poverty in Santa Paula.

In the educational attainment category, 65.7% of the population are high school graduates or have some college education, and only 14.1% have their bachelors degree or higher. This mainly applies to those who are 25 years or older, but I still think it’s interesting because I believe this is also one of the reasons why Santa Paula’s per capita and median household incomes are significantly lower than the rest of both Ventura County, and California as a whole.

In the poverty category, the statistics state that 15.4% of the population live below the poverty line. I found this data point interesting because despite all the new housing and shops being built in Santa Paula, knowing that a significant amount of the population are living below poverty line alarms me.

This is about 10% higher than the rate in California and I believe part of that is also due to the fact that Santa Paula consists of a Latino and lower earning wage population.