Wednesday, April 13, 2011

The census: Minority report | The Economist

http://www.economist.com/node/18488452

 

The census

Minority report

White America’s collapsing birth rate is changing the face of the country


AMONG America’s three-year-olds, a revolution is afoot. Children of that age are turning the country’s demographics on its head. According to a recent study from the Census Bureau, the majority of them are now from groups normally considered minorities, chiefly Hispanics and blacks. The latest release of data from last year’s decennial census confirms that whites still constitute a slender majority, 54%, of those under 18, and a larger one, 64%, of the population as a whole. But America’s transformation into a much browner, more suburban, more southern and western place is rapid and relentless.