By | Associated Press – 5 hrs ago
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Chart shows racial breakdown of …
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the U.S., capping decades of heady immigration growth that is now slowing.
New 2011 census estimates highlight sweeping changes in the nation's racial makeup and the prolonged impact of a weak economy, which is now resulting in fewer Hispanics entering the U.S.
"This is an important landmark," said Roderick Harrison, a former chief of racial statistics at the Census Bureau who is now a sociologist at Howard University. "This generation is growing up much more accustomed to diversity than its elders."
The report comes as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legality of Arizona's strict immigration law, with many states weighing similar get-tough measures.
"We remain in a dangerous period where those appealing to anti-immigration elements are fueling a divisiveness and hostility that might take decades to overcome," Harrison said.
As a whole, the nation's minority population continues to rise, following a higher-than-expected Hispanic count in the 2010 census. Minorities increased 1.9 percent to 114.1 million, or 36.6 percent of the total U.S. population, lifted by prior waves of immigration that brought in young families and boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years.
But a recent slowdown in the growth of the Hispanic and Asian populations is shifting notions on when the tipping point in U.S. diversity will come — the time when non-Hispanic whites become a minority. After 2010 census results suggested a crossover as early as 2040, demographers now believe the pivotal moment may be pushed back several years when new projections are released in December.
The annual growth rates for Hispanics and Asians fell sharply last year to just over 2 percent, roughly half the rates in 2000 and the lowest in more than a decade. The black growth rate stayed flat at 1 percent.
The immigrants staying put in the U.S. for now include Narcisa Marcelino, 34, a single mother who lives with her two daughters, ages 10 and 5, in Martinsburg, W.Va. After crossing into the U.S. from Mexico in 2000, she followed her brother to the eastern part of the state just outside the Baltimore-Washington region. The Martinsburg area is known for hiring hundreds of migrants annually to work in fruit orchards. Its Hispanic growth climbed from 14 percent to 18 percent between 2000 and 2005 before shrinking last year to 3.3 percent, still above the national average.
Marcelino says she sells food from her home to make ends meet for her family and continues to hope that one day she will get a hearing with immigration officials to stay legally in the U.S. She aspires to open a restaurant and is learning English at a community college so she can help other Spanish-language speakers.
If she is eventually deported, "it wouldn't be that tragic," Marcelino said. "But because the children have been born here, this is their country. And there are more opportunities for them here."
Of the 30 large metropolitan areas showing the fastest Hispanic growth in the previous decade, all showed slower growth in 2011 than in the peak Hispanic growth years of 2005-2006, when the construction boom attracted new migrants to low-wage work. They include Lakeland, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; Atlanta; Provo, Utah; Las Vegas; and Phoenix. All but two — Fort Myers, Fla., and Dallas-Fort Worth — also grew more slowly last year than in 2010, hurt by the jobs slump.
Pointing to a longer-term decline in immigration, demographers believe the Hispanic population boom may have peaked.
"The Latino population is very young, which means they will continue to have a lot of births relative to the general population," said Mark Mather, associate vice president of the Population Reference Bureau. "But we're seeing a slowdown that is likely the result of multiple factors: declining Latina birth rates combined with lower immigration levels. If both of these trends continue, they will lead to big changes down the road."
William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the census data, noted that government debates over immigration enforcement may now be less pressing, given slowing growth. "The current congressional and Supreme Court interest in reducing immigration — and the concerns especially about low-skilled and undocumented Hispanic immigration — represent issues that could well be behind us," he said.
Minorities made up roughly 2.02 million, or 50.4 percent of U.S. births in the 12-month period ending July 2011. That compares with 37 percent in 1990.
In all, 348 of the nation's 3,143 counties, or 1 in 9, have minority populations across all age groups that total more than 50 percent. In a sign of future U.S. race and ethnic change, the number of counties reaching the tipping point increases to more than 690, or nearly 1 in 4, when looking only at the under age 5 population.
The counties in transition include Maricopa (Phoenix), Ariz.; King (Seattle), Wash.; Travis (Austin), Texas; and Palm Beach, Fla., where recent Hispanic births are driving the increased diversity among children. Also high on the list are suburban counties such as Fairfax, Va., just outside the nation's capital, and Westchester, N.Y., near New York City, where more open spaces are a draw for young families who are increasingly minority.
According to the latest data, the percentage growth of Hispanics slowed from 4.2 percent in 2001 to 2.5 percent last year. Their population growth would have been even lower if it weren't for their relatively high fertility rates — seven births for every death. The median age of U.S. Hispanics is 27.6 years.
Births actually have been declining for both whites and minorities as many women postponed having children during the economic slump. But the drop since 2008 has been larger for whites, who have a median age of 42. The number of white births fell by 11.4 percent, compared with 3.2 percent for minorities, according to Kenneth Johnson, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire.
Asian population increases also slowed, from 4.5 percent in 2001 to about 2.2 percent. Hispanics and Asians still are the two fastest-growing minority groups, making up about 16.7 percent and 4.8 percent of the U.S. population, respectively.
Blacks, who comprise about 12.3 percent of the population, have increased at a rate of about 1 percent each year. Whites have increased very little in recent years.
Other findings:
—The migration of black Americans back to the South is slowing. New destinations in the South, including Atlanta, Charlotte, N.C., Raleigh, N.C., and Orlando, Fla., saw sharp drop-offs in black population growth as the prolonged housing bust kept African-Americans locked in place in traditional big cities. Metro areas including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco had reduced declines or gains.
—Nine U.S. counties in five states saw their minority populations across all age groups surpass 50 percent last year. They were Sutter and Yolo in California; Quitman in Georgia; Cumberland in New Jersey; Colfax in New Mexico; and Lynn, Mitchell, Schleicher and Swisher in Texas.
—Maverick County, Texas, had the largest share of minorities at 96.8 percent, followed by Webb County, Texas, and Wade Hampton, Alaska, both at 96 percent.
—Four states — Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Texas — as well as the District of Columbia have minority populations that exceed 50 percent.
The census estimates used local records of births and deaths, tax records of people moving within the U.S., and census statistics on immigrants. The figures for "white" refer to those whites who are not of Hispanic ethnicity.
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Associated Press writer John Raby in Charleston, W.Va., contributed to this report.
Replies
Minorities now surpass whites in US births
"Four states — Hawaii, California, New Mexico and Texas — as well as the District of Columbia have minority populations that exceed 50 percent."
How can more than 50% be a MINORITY?
Each group is less than 50%, but, when added together...
...Of course, that means that Caucasians are also a minority in those places.
And the sad part about is, that the Whites are paying for their sorry arses by working our buns off while they set around and do drugs and get drunk and complain that we owe them more. I Love EBT is their Motto. Stop the insanity.
The same is true for all of Western Europe, Canada, and Russia. What we are seeing is the beginning of the end of the "White" race. Some will cheer this, but nearly everything that makes modern life productive, convenient, safe, and fun has been brought to us by these folks.
If one wants to see the future of the world without Western Europeans, he need look no farther than South Africa. Under White "rule" South Africa had progressed to the point of being a nuclear power, one of the benchmarks of being considered a "developed" nation in our modern world. Twenty years after the end of that system, South Africa more closely resembles Liberia and Somalia than the United States and is rapidly heading back to the stone age.
Alas, Babylon!
Sign Up at govtrack.us Then track these two bills S723 & HR 140 They are both bills on birth right citizenship. After the elections I was going to start pushing on these bills. It's a slim chance to get them pass, so we need a BIG PUSH AFTER THE ELECTION with blast emails to CHAIRMAN get them out of the committee they are in. At the same time getting ur legislators to co-sponsor the bill. Once it's out of committee with enough co-sponsors also. Then we need to push to get to the floors (House/Senate) for a vote. THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN B-4 an election, But after the election THIS WILL BE OUR LAST CHANCE TO MAKE R COUNTRY SECURE. To me about national security and r debt!!! Let's not let them call the race card on this issue and stick to national security and debt!!! For too long we have fell for their race card and this is ALL RACES!!!
Rep Lamar Smith (TX) is the chairman for both these bills. U could start contacting him and asking him why the committee has not taken up these two bill S723 & HR140. The committee has more republicans on then democratics and could get started to go to the floor. Boehner could hold them off in the house till after the election, he schedules when a bill is up for vote. We probably could push to get out of committee now since the odds of moving it would be greater now.
A simple email to tell Rep Smith to get HR140 moving out of committee and over to Boehner EVERWEEK would be nice for everyone to do. Also if u think ur legislator will co-sponsor write to him. Hopefully Boehner would know to schedule after the election, but we can send him a email after we get it out of committee. DON'T PUSH the Senate bill YET because of Harry Reid and the elections. We could do this in the back round for now.
Narcisa Marcelino:
Here she is, out in the OPEN letting everyone know she is here ilegally! Will I.C.E act on this? HELL, NO!!!!!!
Any of the patriots on this site that may live in her community need to picket outside her home, telling everyone her status and how she is openly violating the law! Make her life so MISERABLE by calling her out, that she will WANT to go back to Mexico!!!!!!
Here is my solution for this problem:
1. Take their welfare money away, Make at least one of the parents go to work to get his pay.
2. If that pay doesn't meet the minimum poverty line, then supplement with WIC (Bread, milk and bare minimums to help provide for the family) and NO BEER, WINE or LIQUOR to be provided or consumed.
3. No Long-term WIC
4. Drug-testing for all, Mothers and Fathers, any failures, OFF the government teat forever.
5. If you make more than babies than you can afford, it is NOT up to the TAX-Payers to pay for your lack of smarts. You are cut-off at 2 and you don't get money to support your children till they turn 18 years old.....