Fact Sheet

• There are more than 1,500 colonias in the United States near the border with Mexico.

• Approximately 500,000 people live in Third World conditions in the colonias in the United States.

• The colonia population is predominantly Hispanic, but 64.4 percent of all colonia residents under 18 years of age were born in the United States.

• Colonia families cope with the highest unemployment rates in America -- more than 20 percent.

• The income for employed colonia residents is between $3,000 and $6,000.

• A typical colonia household has five to six residents.

• The average home in a colonia takes five to seven years to be completed.

• Approximately 30 to 40 percent of colonia houses lack adequate heating and cooling systems.

• Flooding is a major threat to more than 90 percent of colonia residents.

• The longitudinal dropout rate for secondary colonia students in Texas averages 17.3 percent, compared to an estimated Texas state average of 14.4 percent.

• Less than one percent of colonia children attend college or university.

• The University of Texas Systems Texas-New Mexico Border Health Office reported the following rates of selected viral diseases in colonia residents per 100,000 population:
  • Hepatitis A: 50.3
  • Salmonellosis: 21.3
  • Shigellosis: 18.0
  • Tuberculosis: 28.1