SAN ANTONIO, TX - New demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau confirms San Antonio's rising prominence as one of America's fastest growing big cities, fueled by explosive growth in the Hispanic population and a growing job base in 21st century industries.

While many large cities in the Northeast and other parts of America continued to lose population, San Antonio grew to 1.32 million residents, likely retaining its position as the nation's seventh-largest city.

The latest Census numbers, released Thursday, showed that San Antonio's Hispanic population now makes up more than 63 percent of the city's total population.

"San Antonio is a look at America's tomorrow," Mayor Julian Castro said. "As a diverse, economically vibrant city, San Antonio and cities like it represent the new face of the American Dream."

Demographic trends suggest that the population of Texas will look increasingly like San Antonio's by the end of this decade. And by mid-century, the entire U.S. population is projected to look more like cities like San Antonio as three out of every 10 Americans are expected to be persons of Latino ancestry.

"America needs to look no further than San Antonio for a window on the future entrepreneur, the future voter and the future consumer," Mayor Castro said.

With nearly 110,000 students in the higher education pipeline, San Antonio has more college-going students on a city-to-city basis than comparable cities like Austin, Dallas, Phoenix and San Jose, Calif.
The city is also home to some of the biggest employers in cutting-edge research and technology sectors in the world.

"To anyone building a company, San Antonio's not just the new face, it's the new place of the American Dream," said Graham Weston, chairman of Rackspace Hosting.
Mayor Castro said San Antonio is a shining ...