California's $1.07 trillion Latino economy is the force keeping the state's global economic ranking intact, a Cal Lutheran report found.

The 2026 California LatinoGDP Report, released Monday, Oct. 5, by California Lutheran University's Center for Economic Research and Forecasting (CERF), found that the economic output of the state's Latino population is growing 2.7 times faster than the non-Latino economy. Without that growth, California would have fallen further behind the national average in recent years.

The finding carries local weight. Hispanic and Latino residents make up roughly 45.6% of Ventura County's population, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

$1.07 trillion and climbing

The report pegged the 2024 California Latino GDP at $1.07 trillion, larger than the entire economy of Switzerland. California's overall state GDP was $4.05 trillion in 2024, ranking fifth in the world after Japan. Without Latinos, the state would drop to eighth.

"Without Latinos, California would have fallen well behind the rest of the country," said Dan Hamilton, a professor of economics and the report's principal investigator. "But Latinos are such strong drivers of economic growth … that they elevate the entire California economy both nationally and on the global scale."

Between 1997 and 2019, California's economy grew 57% faster than the nation's, according to the report. That pace slowed after 2019. Without Latinos, the gap between California's GDP growth and the national rate would have exceeded 37%, the report found.

Labor force, education gains

Latinos make up 41% of Californians but account for 95% of the state's population growth since 2010, the report stated. The Latino labor force has grown nearly 20 times faster than the non-Latino labor force over the same period.

Educational attainment is accelerating too. The number of Latinos holding a bachelor's degree or higher is growing 3.5 times faster than the number of highly educated non-Latinos, the report found.

Matthew Fienup, associate professor of economics and CERF executive director in Thousand Oaks, said the state's post-pandemic slowdown made the data more striking. He noted that California's rapid economic growth relative to the nation had been "a foregone conclusion" for decades.

Local research, statewide scope

The report is the 32nd produced by the LatinoGDP Project, a collaboration among Community Partners, UCLA's Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture, and CERF. The project has analyzed Latino economic contributions across more than a dozen states and metro areas including Los Angeles, Miami and New York.

Lorena Muñoz, associate dean of equity, inclusion and belonging at Cal Lutheran, said she uses the reports in her classes. She said the findings underscore the value of opening higher education opportunities for Latino students in Ventura County and beyond.

David Hayes-Bautista, founder of the LatinoGDP Project and Distinguished Professor of medicine at UCLA, said the data makes clear that California's economic future depends on its Latino population. The full report is available on the LatinoGDP Project's website.