By Denise Lu, Charlie Smart, and Lazaro Gamio, The New York Times, August 12, 2021
Nearly every county in the United States became more diverse in the last decade as the nation recorded its first drop in the white population in 2020, according to detailed data on race and ethnicity released by the Census Bureau on Thursday. More than a third of the nation now lives in counties where people of color are a majority.
The decline in the white share of the population is a continuation of the country’s decades-long trend. The pattern is also consistent with what demographers have predicted to be a future white minority — when white residents are expected to make up less than half of the U.S. population.
Since 1980, Hispanic and Asian populations have experienced the largest growth, with each group quadrupling its size from 40 years ago. During that time, the growth of the white population has slowed with each decade, increasing about 6 percent since 1980, as the national population grew more than 40 percent.
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