Washington: White people will no longer make up a majority of Americans by 2042, according to new government projections. That's eight years sooner than previous estimates, made in 2004.
The US has been growing more diverse for decades, but the process has sped up through immigration and higher birth rates among minority residents, especially Hispanics. It is also growing older.
"The white population is older and very much centred around the aging baby boomers who are well past their high fertility years," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
Melting pot
"The future of America is epitomised by the young people today. They are basically the melting pot we are going to see in the future," he says.
The Census Bureau yesterday released population projections through 2050. They are subject to big revisions, depending on immigration policy, cultural changes and natural or manmade disasters.
The US has nearly 305 million people today. The population is projected to hit 400 million in 2039 and 439 million in 2050.
"That's like adding all the people from France and Britain", said Steve A. Camarota, director of research at the Centre for Immigration Studies.
White non-Hispanics make up about two-thirds of the population, but only 55 per cent of those younger than five.
By 2050, whites will make up 46 per cent of the population and blacks will make up 15 per cent, a relatively small increase from today. Hispanics, who make up about 15 per cent of the population today, will account for 30 per cent in 2050, according to the new projections.
Asians, which make up about five per cent of the population, are projected to increase to nine per cent by 2050.
The population 85 and older is projected to more than triple by 2050, to 19 million.
