It’s true that I spend more time than most people do in studying the reports coming from the Census Bureau to try to find out as much as possible about the growing Latino population – one of every six people in this country now, and possibly as many as one in three by 2050.

But it is because I think it important for people to understand the reality of our population today that I weed my way through every detail I can find.

I’M STILL TRYING to find out the self-identification of Latinos when it comes to the question of race; which in 2000 was 48 percent white, 42 percent other, 8 percent American Indian and 2 percent African-American.

I guess there just aren’t that many self-identified Latino Aleutian Eskimos.

So I will be among the people watching on Tuesday to see the Census Bureau’s latest statistics related to the Latino population. They’re planning to let it be known more specifically about the geographic distribution of Latino ethnic groups – including the big ones of Mexican, Cuban and Puerto Rican.

Of course, the Pew Hispanic Center came out with their own study just last week saying that people of Mexican ethnic background comprise nearly 32 million of the roughly 50 million Latinos – even though in places like Miami, Washington and New York, the dominant Latino ethnicities locally are the Cubans, the Salvadorans and the Puerto Ricans.

WE’LL SEE HOW accurate their assessment is. Although quite frankly, their take on the Latino population coincides with what I see and hear. It probably is legitimate.

Which is important for our society as a whole to comprehend. For too many people are basing their sociological and political decisions on beliefs about the Latino population that are out-of-date.

Which is an easy mistake to make, since the Latino population these days is continually evolving. Information accurate as recently as last year may no longer be complete.

Taking information any older than that is outrageous. You might as well be digging up your grandparents’ old sets of World Book encyclopedias (remember the ones that printed the annual update to try to keep up with the latest information) for your information.

WHICH IS WHY I found it interesting to read a report published by Patch.com – AOL.com’s collection of websites meant to get them into the business of reporting community-oriented news.One of their Maryland-based reporter-types took it on herself to find out why we should care that the United States is becoming a less-white nation.

The “majority-minority” concept that will ensure we remain strong as a society. The truth is that if we gave in to the ethnic hang-ups of some members of our society, THAT is what would turn this country into a third-world nation, so to speak.

While it might well be idealistic on my part, I always hope that providing the latest data on the U.S. population will have an impact on swaying at least some of these people to see the truth our country faces.

Which is why I will be studying the latest Census Bureau data the same way some people still scour baseball box scores – and the sports reports for the latest outrageous comments from Venezolano-American manager Ozzie Guillen.