I know "fascinating" and "demographic data" aren't words that often appear together. But as much as I hate to admit it, I couldn't put down the Population Reference Bureau's report on the findings of the 2010 Census until I finished it.
It's only 18 pages - and very wonky at times - but kudos to the authors for packing so much information into so few pages.
There's way too much to summarize in a blog post, but one thing that really jumped out at me is the data on U.S. diversity. The U.S. has become very diverse - and in the future it's going to be even more diverse.
33% of Americans above the age of 18 are ethnic minorities, but 46% of those under 18 are ethnic minorities. It's likely that over half of all children under 18 will be ethnic minorities before the next Census in 2020.
We've also reached "minority-majority" status where minorities make up more the 50% of the population in 4 states (California, Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas). 8 additional states will likely join this club by 2020.
The U.S. Census is projecting the U.S. as a whole will achieve minority-majority status in 2042, but we think it will happen 5 years or so sooner.
Another interesting diversity statistic is over 9 million people reported they are multi-racial, meaning they selected more than one race to describe themselves. This is up from 5.8 million in 2000, which was the first Census that allowed people to choose more than one race.
Fun stuff and just a small part of the demographic data covered.
Superb idea, great content.
Posted by: Niels Peter | October 04, 2011 at 07:10 PM