The Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON The education gap between Latinos and non-Latino whites is narrowing at the high school level but growing wider at the college level, the Census Bureau reported yesterday.

In its annual statistical portrait of America"s diverse Latino population, the Census Bureau said Latino adults are more than three times as likely as non-Latino whites to be high school dropouts. And they are also nearly three times less likely to have college degrees.

Overall, 57 percent of Latinos 25 and older are high school graduates, compared with 88 percent of non-Latino whites. About 11 percent of Latinos have a college degree, compared with 28 percent of non-Latino whites.

Within the Latino population, there are differences associated with their country of origin. Those of Cuban origin have the highest levels of income and education, while those of Mexican origin have the lowest relative income and education, the survey said.

The Latino high school graduation rate has shown a steady improvement, climbing from 53 percent in 1995, when the rate for non-Latino whites was 86 percent.

The Latino college graduation rate rose from 9 percent in 1995, when the non-Latino rate was 25 percent. Comparisons for prior years are not applicable because survey methods and questions were changed in 1995.

The review of the fast-growing Latino population is based on interviews and research conducted in March last year. The survey of Latinos is separate from the 2000 census, whose results will be released this month.

About two-thirds of America"s Latino population is of Mexican origin, the report found. About 14 percent are of Central and South American origin, 9 percent of Puerto Rican origin and 4 percent of Cuban origin.

The percentage of college graduates ranges from 23 percent among those of Cuban heritage to 7 percent for those of Mexican heritage.

Sonia Perez, deputy research director for the National Council of La Raza, a Latino research and advocacy organization, said she found the educational differences between Latinos and whites to be "quite striking."

Perez called for a major expansion of state and federal spending for education.

"We need to close the gaps in education, with programs we know are effective, like Head Start," Perez said. "We need to start really early," a need that was underlined by the Census Bureau"s finding that 36 percent of Latinos are younger than 18, compared with 23 percent for non-Latino whites.

The Census Bureau found that nearly 23 percent of Latinos live below the federal poverty line, compared to nearly 8 percent for non-Latino whites. (The poverty standard is about $16,000 a year for a family of four.)

The gap was greater for those younger than 18, with 30 percent of Latinos living in poverty compared with 9 percent of non-Latino whites.

The census reported that blacks remain the largest minority group, with 35.5 million people, or 12.8 percent of the population. Latinos rank second at 32.8 million (11.8 percent).

Population experts believe Latinos will become the largest minority group sometime this decade.