Census Update on Minority Population : Asian-Nation : Asian American News, Issues, & Current Events Blog

Academic Version: Applying my personal experiences and academic research as a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies to provide a more complete understanding of political, economic, and cultural issues and current events related to American race relations, and Asia/Asian America in particular.

Plain English: Trying to put my Ph.D. to good use.

May 21, 2009

Written by C.N.

Census Update on Minority Population

As the Census Bureau ramps up its efforts toward the 2010 census, they’ve just released a summary sheet from their recently published State and County report that highlights some interesting geographic characteristics of the racial/ethnic minority population in the U.S.:

Four states were majority-minority in 2008: Hawaii (75%), New Mexico (58%), California (58%) and Texas (53%). The District of Columbia was 67% minority. No other state had more than a 43% minority population. . . .

Hispanics

California had the largest Hispanic population of any state in July 2008 (13.5 million), as well as the largest numeric increase within the Hispanic population since July 2007 (313,000). New Mexico had the highest percentage of Hispanics at 45%.

Los Angeles County, Calif., had the largest Hispanic population of any county (4.7 million) in 2008 and the largest numeric increase since 2007 (67,000). Starr County â€” on the Mexican border in southern Texas â€” had the highest share of Hispanics (97%).

There were 48 majority-Hispanic counties nationally; the top 10 were all in Texas.

Blacks

New York had the largest Black population of any state as of July 1, 2008 (3.5 million); Georgia had the largest numeric increase since July 1, 2007 (67,000). The District of Columbia had the highest percentage of Blacks (56%), followed by Mississippi (38%).

Cook County, Ill. (Chicago) had the largest Black population of any county (1.4 million), and Orleans Parish, La. (New Orleans) had the largest numeric increase since July 1, 2007 (16,000). Claiborne County, Miss. â€” on the Louisiana border â€” had the highest percentage of Blacks in the nation (84%).

Seventy-seven counties were majority-Black or African-American; all were in the South.

Asians

California had both the largest Asian population of any state (5.1 million) in July 2008 and the largest numeric increase of Asians since July 2007 (105,000). Hawaii is our nationâ€™s only majority-Asian state, with people of this group comprising 54% of the total population.

Los Angeles County, Calif., had the largest Asian population of any county (1.4 million) in July 2008. Santa Clara County, Calif. (San Jose) had the largest numeric increase (19,000) since July 2007. At 58%, Honolulu County, Hawaii, was the only majority-Asian county in the nation.

In a separate press release, the Census Bureau also notes that the latest data shows that almost half of all children under age five are non-White.

Overall, the Census Bureau also estimates that as of 2008, the Asian American population stood at 15,480,349 (13,549,064 of whom are monoracial Asian) and Asian Americans comprise 5.1% of the total U.S. population of 304,059,724.

Author Citation

Suggested reference: Le, C.N. . "Census Update on Minority Population" Asian-Nation: The Landscape of Asian America. <https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/2009/05/census-update-on-minority-population/> ().

Short URL: https://www.asian-nation.org/headlines/?p=1266

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Census, majority, percent minority, population, statistics

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May 21, 2009

Written by C.N.

Census Update on Minority Population

Author Citation