US Demographics structure changes, white population falls below 60% for the first time ever

There has been a marked shift in the demographics of the U.S., with the white population in the country poised to drop below 60% for the first time in its history of existence. The browning of America is gathering speed as the people of colour add to its numbers. The above facts were revealed in the latest US census data.

The issue gains even more importance in a nation that is deeply fractured along racial lines. The latest census data will give one more tool for the extreme right-wing and white supremacist parties, which are gaining strength in the U.S. 

The trend has the white supremacist and nationalists worried. The main reason for the fall in the white population has been the group having fewer children and starting their families at a later age than other groups, in a development demographers call "baby bust."

The census data reveals that the white population has fallen by more than 1 million over four years. The decrease has started accelerating in recent years. The fall also negated the modest population growth from 2010 to 2016. 

The white population slipped from 63.8 per cent to 59.7 per cent between July 2010 and July 2020.

Between 2016 and 2017, the white population fell by an estimated 129,000 people. It fell down from 63.8 per cent to 59.7 per cent between July 2010 and July 2020. However, between 2019 -2020 the decline sped up to 482,000, resulting in an overall decline of nearly a million whites in the decade of 2010-2020. Demographic experts contend that the 2010s could be the first decade when the nation's white population registered an absolute loss.

According to the Guardian, In the past decade, Hispanics or Latino Americans have grown by at least 10.5 million between 2010 and 2020. In the same period, Asian-Americans have also grown, going up by 4.7 million. African –Americans registered a smaller growth expanding by 300,000 in eight of the last 10 years, for an estimated 3.4 million increase since the 2010 census.

The Asian-Americans saw more growth from immigration

The census reveals that Latino –American and Black –American growth was accounted for by natural growth from people already living in the US who are giving birth. The Asian-Americans were the only demographic group to experience more growth from immigration -- 3.3 million people -- than from natural increase -- 1.2 million. In the Latino –American or Hispanic- American group, natural increase accounted for three-quarters of the population added over the last decade and the remaining quarter from immigration.

The surge in colored population and the concurrent decline in the white population in the US comes at a time during the Trump years when immigration became a hot button issue.

Brooking Institution's Senior Fellow William Frey, who reviewed the census data, wrote in a paper that the population growth in the U.S. comes from a surge in the population of colored people. The statistics reveal that as the population ages and declines further, racial and ethnic multiplicity will be the characteristic demographic feature of America's younger generations.

Frey further added that in the period from 2016 to 2020, 30 states lost the white population. 20 states saw a surge in white population over this period, including Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah, Colorado, Tennessee, Texas, and Idaho. The fall was most significant in California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.

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