Pew: Latinos are divided over whether the American dream is attainable

Latinos in the United States are divided about the American dream. In a report released Sept. 1 Pew Research Center said 20% of Latino adults feel they have reached it and a third are heading there. About 18% consider it beyond their grasp and 27% reject the idea that it exists.

Better off than their parents

The pessimism fades when the question turns to living standards. Some 57% of Latinos say they live better than their parents did at the same age while 23% say worse. About 53% expect their own children to do better than they have and only 14% expect them to do worse. Other U.S. adults are less upbeat on that last point since 29% of them expect their children to be better off.

Immigrants are the most hopeful group. Seventy percent of Latino immigrants say they live better than their parents compared with 49% of U.S.-born Latinos. On the next generation the split is 63% for immigrants and 48% for the U.S. born. Among U.S.-born Latinos 48% say the dream has gotten harder to reach than it was for their parents and among immigrants the share is 35%.

What the dream means

Asked in an open-ended question what the phrase means about six in ten answered with money or opportunity. Some 36% named financial stability and 31% named economic opportunity and 14% named owning a home. Freedom came up for 18% and hard work for 13% and equal treatment for 11%.

Among Latinos who believe the dream exists 81% say hard work and motivation are major factors and 76% say access to the right opportunities matters. Only 35% name luck. People who see the dream as out of reach lean more on luck as an explanation than people who feel they have reached it.

How the survey was done

The findings come from the National Survey of Latinos which ran Oct. 6 to 16 in 2025. It included 4,923 Hispanic adults and was offered in English and Spanish. Pew notes that about one in five Americans is Latino which makes them the country's second-biggest group by race or ethnicity.