Hispanic births accounted for nearly half of the state's 386,096 births in 2010, according to a federal report showing the birth rate in Texas exceeding all states but Alaska and Utah

The figures offer more evidence of the impact of Hispanic growth in Texas, which led the nation in population growth over the past decade, increasing 20.6% — more than twice as fast as that of the nation as a whole. Texas grew by 4.3 million since 2000 to hit the 25.1 million mark in 2010. Hispanics accounted for two-thirds of that growth. Migration from other states and other countries, as well as a high fertility rate among Hispanics, are driving Hispanic growth in Texas, said Lloyd Potter, state demographer and director of the Texas State Data Center. "And the Hispanic population in Texas is very young," Potter said. "Just by the age factor, we have relatively few deaths, and consequently among Hispanics, there are significantly larger number of births than deaths." In 2010, Texas saw 189,120 Hispanic births, accounting for 49% of the state total, according to the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hispanics make up 37.6% of Texas' population, according to the census. Non-Hispanic whites had the next highest share of births in Texas, 134,906, or 35%. Non-Hispanic blacks had 44,559 births, or 11.5% of the state total, and Asians/Pacific Islanders had 16,818, or 4.3%. In April 2011, an analysis of census data by the Brookings Institution found that Hispanics registered the largest absolute increase in children nationwide — 4.8 million — during the previous decade and that were it not for Hispanics, the nation's child population would have declined.