Friday, September 30, 2011

Census DATA Reveals Decreasing White Population in 15 States

New census data will no doubt further energize the Christian Right and its white supremacist allies - that's assuming, of course that the two groups are not one and the same - and cause even more hysteria that "white civilization" is under attack. For a group that likes to put minority rights up to a public vote, the irony is that some day they may find themselves in the minority and have helped set the stage for their own downfall. What's interesting is that the declining white percentages of the population are not confined to boarder states with growing Hispanic populations, but include parts of the Northeast, Mid-West and the South. The KKK loving Tony Perkins and his cohorts at Family Research Council must be hyperventilating indeed! Here are some excerpts from a Washington Post story:

Non-Hispanic whites are a dwindling share of the U.S. population, with their numbers dropping in the Northeast and Midwest and growing only modestly in the South and West, the Census Bureau said Thursday. Whites declined in 15 states, almost all in the industrial and farming states from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, and from Kansas to Ohio. They also declined in California and three Southern states, including Maryland.

A Census Bureau analysis of the 2010 count showed that the number of non-Hispanic whites rose over the decade from 194.5 million to 197 million, but the 1.2 percent growth rate fell far short of the national increase of 9.7 percent. Non-Hispanic whites are now 64 percent of the population, down from 69 percent a decade ago. The census also reported that the black population grew by 12 percent.

The number of Hispanics and Asians is soaring, the number of blacks is growing slowly and whites are almost at a standstill.

Hispanics are an ethnic group of people who can be of any race. Most Hispanics identified themselves as white. The number of whites who indicated for the census that they are Hispanic increased by 56 percent.

Whites who are not Hispanic are getting older on average, and have low birthrates that, when coupled with the high birthrates of Hispanics and Asians, make whites a smaller share of the population with every census count.

Some states experienced outsize growth in the white population. The number rose by 10 percent or more in Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Wyoming. The District, which the census treats as a state for statistical purposes, had a 32 percent leap in whites.

Every state saw its multiple-race population jump by at least 8 percent, and some of the largest increases were in the South. The number of multiracial people more than doubled in the Carolinas and came close to doubling in Georgia and Delaware. Nine of the 10 states with the biggest increases were Southern states.

Yep, not good news for the Christianists and white supremacy crowd. For those of us who don't judge others based upon the color of their skin or ethnic background, it's no big deal.

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