About 41% of all Mexicans between ages 16 and 19 in New York City have dropped out of school, according to census data

No other major immigrant group has a dropout rate higher than 20%, and the overall rate for the city is less than 9 percent, the statistics show. This crisis endures at the college level. Among Mexican immigrants 19 to 23 who do not have a college degree, only 6% are enrolled. That is a fraction of the rates among other major immigrant groups and the native-born population. The problem is especially unsettling because Mexicans are the fastest-growing major immigrant group in the city, officially numbering about 183,200, according to the Census Bureau, up from about 33,600 in 1990. Experts say the actual figure is far larger, given high levels of illegal immigration. Many Mexicans are poor and in the country illegally. While educational achievement is far higher among American-born children with Mexican ancestry, it still lags behind the rates of most other foreign-born and native-born groups, according to census data.