Siamo 331.4 milioni

 

(The Hill)

The United States is a predominantly multi-racial, increasingly less white melting pot where the majority of Americans live in urban and suburban rather than rural areas, driving political and societal dynamics that challenge 331.4 million people, including elected leaders and the voters they serve.

New Census Bureau data reported on Thursday affirmed that minority communities drove U.S. population growth during the past decade as white Americans declined as a percentage for the first time since the nation's founding, reports The Hill’s Reid Wilson.

 

The Hill: Hawaii: Most diverse, according to the 2020 census.

 

The Hill: Five takeaways from the groundbreaking census report.

 

The distribution of the population across 50 states affirms an ongoing migration away from rural areas to cities and suburbs, driven largely by economic factors that are unlikely to abate. 

 

“Once natural decrease begins it is almost certain to continue,” Kenneth Johnson, a senior demographer at the Carsey School at the University of New Hampshire, told The Hill. “Many [counties that lost population] no longer have the demographic resilience to grow again and recent data suggests that population losses in this decade will be substantial.”

 

Non-Hispanic whites now account for a little under 58 percent of the U.S. population, the first time since the census was conducted that self-identified whites measured below 60 percent. By contrast, the 2000 census showed non-Hispanic whites were more than 69 percent of the population, falling to 63.7 percent by 2010 (data by states Here).

 

Hispanics or Latinos have grown steadily to 62.1 million, or 18.7 percent of the population, up from 12.6 percent in 2000 and 16.4 percent in the 2010 count. Asian Americans grew faster than any other minority group in the past decade, to 24 million, up about 20 percent since 2010.

 

Population experts point to several reasons the percentage of whites declined. Birth rates fell to their lowest rates in generations in the years after the 2008-2009 Great Recession and did not recover. Women of child-bearing age are giving birth later in life and elect to have fewer children overall than their counterparts in earlier years.

 

Of intense interest in Washington, D.C., and state capitals was Thursday’s census report on population changes that affect the number of congressional districts in each state. The data will be used by state and local governments to redraw political boundaries in the decennial redistricting process, and by governments at all levels to administer programs and distribute billions of dollars in federal, state and local funding over the next decade. Republicans in the House need five seats next year to win back the majority and they say they feel optimistic about their prospects. One advantage: Republicans control the redistricting process in many more states than do Democrats.

 

The New York Times: A fight over redistricting looms, with control of Congress potentially hanging in the balance and amid one of the most protracted assaults on voting access since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. 

 

The Washington Post: Uneven development in urban areas as the U.S. population shifts is correlated to housing prices, according to government data and studies of urban trends. One downside of urban sprawl is pressure on the environment.