The Urban Institute’s study, which used Census data, found a wide gap between Hispanics and whites when it comes to wealth at ages 65 and over.
In 2012, whites in that age group had median inflation-adjusted household wealth of $280,200, compared with $84,600 for U.S.-born Latinos and $30,900 for foreign-born Hispanics, according to the report. African-Americans fared better than Latinos from outside of the U.S., with a household wealth of $51,600.
Contributing to that result were earnings shortfalls and the lack of availability of retirement plans at the workplace. The effect is especially pronounced for Hispanics who are originally from outside the country.
“It’s the case that when we have foreign-born populations, many of them came as adults and may not have spent the full 40 years working in the U.S.,” said Stipica Mudrazija, a research associate at the Urban Institute and co-author of the report.
“They have less time to accumulate wealth,” he said.
