The wealth gap between latinos and whites has widened to unprecedented levels amid the housing crisis and the recession, according to an analysis of newly available 2009 government data by the
Pew Research Center, an independent think tank. The median net worth of white households is twenty times greater than that of black households and 18 times greater than that of latino households, according to the study.
The study, which used data collected by the Census Bureau, found that the median wealth of latino households fell by 66 percent from 2005 to 2009. By contrast, the median wealth of whites fell by just 16 percent over the same period. Black Americans saw their wealth drop by 53 percent. The median wealth of latino and black households is at its lowest point since 1984, when the Census Bureau first conducted the study, the report said. Read the
entire study here.