This just in

[Narrock]

White Americans no longer a majority by 2042 By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer
Thu Aug 14, 5:03 AM ET



WASHINGTON - White people will no longer make up a majority of Americans by 2042, according to new government projections. That's eight years sooner than previous estimates, made in 2004.

The nation has been growing more diverse for decades, but the process has sped up through immigration and higher birth rates among minority residents, especially Hispanics.

It is also growing older.

"The white population is older and very much centered around the aging baby boomers who are well past their high fertility years," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "The future of America is epitomized by the young people today. They are basically the melting pot we are going to see in the future."

The Census Bureau Thursday released population projections through 2050, based on rates for births, deaths and immigration. They are subject to big revisions, depending on immigration policy, cultural changes and natural or manmade disasters.

The U.S. has nearly 305 million people today. The population is projected to hit 400 million in 2039 and 439 million in 2050.

That's like adding all the people from France and Britain, said Steve A. Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that advocates tighter immigration policies.

White non-Hispanics make up about two-thirds of the population, but only 55 percent of those younger than 5.

By 2050, whites will make up 46 percent of the population and blacks will make up 15 percent, a relatively small increase from today. Hispanics, who make up about 15 percent of the population today, will account for 30 percent in 2050, according to the new projections.

Asians, which make up about 5 percent of the population, are projected to increase to 9 percent by 2050.

The population 85 and older is projected to more than triple by 2050, to 19 million.

[leah]

i'm gonna go ahead and file this under "so what." i honestly don't see why this is such a big deal note that the article mentions this generation as a "melting pot"--isn't that what america started out as in the first place? cheers to diversity, i say. i'm surprised people from foreign countries still want to come here, frankly, given our bad international reputation and poopy economy.

[Tuggan]

huh. have to be over 50% to be the "majority"?

[ClakarEQ]

Mindia, u know what else too, English will not be the major language of the US sometime in the future as well. It will be, ta-da SPANISH

Who was just posting recently about spanish, I'm thinking it was u.

[Tikker]

huh. have to be over 50% to be the "majority"?

that's pretty much how a percentage works, yup

whitey will still make up the single largest group, but will not longer be the majority

[araby]

good thing my Dad will be gone by then cause if he weren't he'd die from a heart attack.

[brinstar]

huh. have to be over 50% to be the "majority"?

yes, but that is not required to get elected, unfortunately

[KaiineTN]

It's majority if you look at it in terms of white and non-white people, which is... sad.

I'm sort of seeing a half arab, half white girl right now. I guess I might be contributing to this! Ohnoez.

[DangerPaul]

within another 100 years or so, there will no longer be 'white' 'black' or 'brown'
who cares?

[brinstar]

in the immortal words of Senator Jay Bulworth:

All we need is a voluntary, free-spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction.

Everybody just gotta keep fuckin' everybody 'til we're all the same color.

[Tossica]

in the immortal words of Senator Jay Bulworth:

All we need is a voluntary, free-spirited, open-ended program of procreative racial deconstruction.

Everybody just gotta keep fuckin' everybody 'til we're all the same color.

LOVE that movie.

[Diekan]

huh. have to be over 50% to be the "majority"?

yes, but that is not required to get elected, unfortunately

It is a majority actually. Just not a majority of the popular vote - and for good reason. If we went by the popular vote, only those states with the highest populations would decide who gets elected - everyone else would get fucked.

[Kramer]

i love that quote from bulworth

and, a vote is a vote, good lord. the large states would not pick presidents, everyone votes the same day and find out who got all the votes..... simple.

[Lueyen]

i love that quote from bulworth

and, a vote is a vote, good lord. the large states would not pick presidents, everyone votes the same day and find out who got all the votes..... simple.

The President's constituency should be the whole of the country not just the high population density areas. Going by strait popular vote, prospective candidates and sitting Presidents wishing for a second term would need to pay little attention if any to the concerns of low population density areas.

[leah]

it seems like the way things are now, the big-population states have all the say. i feel like as a nebraskan, my vote means nothing because we have so few electoral votes and the majority (or all, i'm not sure) of them are republican, which is not how i would choose to vote at all :\

[Martrae]

Everyone used to say Ohio was meaningless, too, and now look.

[Evermore]

bah its all in the electoral college...

[vonkaar]

it seems like the way things are now, the big-population states have all the say. i feel like as a nebraskan, my vote means nothing because we have so few electoral votes and the majority (or all, i'm not sure) of them are republican, which is not how i would choose to vote at all :\

Well, it works both ways...

Say you are in a 'high population' state like Texas with 24 million people. Just for argument's sake, we'll say 50% vote. So... 12 million voters. In 2004, Houston and Austin (Texas' 1st and 4th largest cities) voted Democrat, along with several other counties. That's 6 million people, or 3 million 'blue' votes. If the rest of the state voted Republican, it's 9 million to 3 million. So, the electoral college votes went to Bush.

Nebraska, on the other hand, has 1.8 million people, or 900,000 voters. Nebraska was a 'red' state. Even if you had a dramatic 51/49 split, you are still only looking at 441,000 'blue' voters that feel like they wasted their vote.

So, you have 3 million people in a 'powerful' state who feel like their vote was wasted, and 441k (actually, it's was around 75k who voted 'blue') in Nebraska who echo those sentiments. Imagine living in Houston - the 4th largest city in America. Democrats are a fairly large majority down there. You live in a giant city and all of your friends, all of your coworkers and neighbors all share the same political views that you hold. Yet, your vote is wasted because of the assholes in San Antonio and DFW. What is more frustrating - belonging to a tiny minority in the 38th most populous state, in the 42nd largest city (Omaha, I'm assuming), or voting with the large majority in the 4th largest city, in the 2nd largest state?

[leah]

ugh, i guess. it's all frustrating either way, imo. :\ i wish there was a completely fair and easy way to handle the voting process.

then again, i guess nothing about politics is "fair and easy."

(also: lincoln :D omaha is too crazy for me.)

[vonkaar]

okay, 73rd largest city =p

[Arlos]

And some of us aren't silly enough to live in states that have the opposite political leanings as we do. I lived in Kansas once. Never again. Ever.

-Arlos

[leah]

haha i know i know. i kinda like nebraska, though, and if there were to be a "liberal" place to live in nebraska, it'd be lincoln. so i hear, anyway. plus omaha sucks to navigate so i would be miserable there.

[brinstar]

yeah lincoln is about as blue as NE gets

though that's pretty much only in the square made by 10th street on the west, 48th street on the east, adams street on the north, and van dorn on the south

seriously, after every big election the paper publishes how each district voted, and the core is always medium blue while the 'burbs (if you can call them that lol) are blood red

plus my color doesn't even show up on that map-- i am one of only ~2200 registered Greens ;\