From the BBC:
Non-Hispanic white births the minority in US
Children from racial and ethnic minorities now account for more than half the births in the US, according to the latest US census.
Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other mixed races made up 50.4 percent of births counted in the 12 month period ending in July 2011.
It puts non-Hispanic white births in the minority for the first time.
Sociologists believe the economic slowdown has contributed to a greater decline in birth rates among whites.
The US Census Bureau recorded 2.02m babies born to minorities in the year to July 2011, making just over half of all births, compared with 37% in 1990.
'Important landmark'
US birth rates have been declining, but the drop has been larger for whites.
The number of white births has fallen by 11.4% since 2008, compared with 3.2% for minorities, according to Kenneth Johnson, a sociologist at the University of New Hampshire.
Roderick Harrison, a former chief of racial statistics at the Census Bureau, now a sociologist at Howard University told Associated Press: "This is an important landmark. This generation is growing up much more accustomed to diversity than its elders."
The nation's minority population now makes up 36.6% of the total US population.
Demographers also believe the Hispanic population boom may now have peaked.
"The Latino population is very young, which means they will continue to have a lot of births relative to the general population," Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau said.
"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."
This is one of the biggest reasons why I believe we are headed for a big economic collapse. The current and projected population base cannot pay the governments debt through taxes.
Comments(5)