In the early 1990's the U.S. Census Bureau projected the Hispanic-origin population would be the largest growing group. These projections also revealed that by the year 2000, the Hispanic-origin population might increase to 31 million (The official 2000 Census count was 35.3 million/12.5% of U.S. population), to double its 1990 (22.4 million) size by 2015 (that would be 44.8 million), and quadruple its 1990 size by the middle of the next century (89.6 million).