A respected think tank study has underscored America’s massive demographic shift since the start of the pandemic, with millions more Spanish-speaking residents as the white population tumbled.
The Hispanic population grew by 3.2 million from April 2020 to July 2023, as the number of white people fell by 2.1 million — the result of immigration and birth and death rates, says a Brookings Institution study.
That means Hispanics accounted for 91 percent of US population growth in those three years.
At the same time, the black, Asian, and mixed-race populations grew by hundreds of thousands of people each, while the number of Native Americans expanded by a smaller 23,000.
William Frey, the demographer who wrote the report, says a ‘diversity explosion’ is reshaping the nation.
Frey urged policymakers to ensure schools, colleges and businesses were ready for these shifts.
While he welcomed the changes, they are a concern for some white and other Americans, who worry that the country is losing its character and becoming too diverse.
In social media responses to the study, critics said the US was ‘quietly becoming a third-world country’ and that the changes were due to ‘mass illegal immigration’ across the loose southern border.
Some, including tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, say Democrats want people flows from South America as part of a ‘great replacement’ of whites to secure election victories over the coming decades.
Illegal immigration is among the top concerns of voters in the 2024 election contest between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and anti-immigrant Republican former president Donald Trump.
Trump has railed against criminal Hispanic migrants and vowed to deport millions of ‘illegals’ if elected in November.
Harris, as President Joe Biden’s ‘border czar,’ famously urged Central American migrants to ‘not come’ to the US.
But the administration seeks to expand the number of people who can apply for citizenship and is frequently accused of failing to secure the border with Mexico.
While America’s demographic shift towards non-Hispanic white people becoming a minority has been projected for decades, the new Brookings research shows how the population has been reshaped in just a few years.
Overall, the US population grew by 3.4 million over the period, says Frey’s analysis of US Census Bureau data.
At the same time, the white population dropped by 2.1 million, and the shrinking group of white youth drove a 1.6 million drop in the number of Americans under the age of 18.
America’s youth population is already minority white, and will be 60 percent Hispanic, black and other minorities by 2050.
The falling white population is mostly the result of more deaths than births.
Thanks to an aging population, there are proportionately fewer white women of childbearing age and fertility rates are lower than in other groups.
The fast-growing number of Hispanics and other minorities is down to natural increase — measured as births minus deaths — and immigration, the study found.
Looking ahead, Hispanic and other nonwhite groups are projected to make up 44 percent of the population in 2030, with Hispanic residents comprising one fifth of the total.
By 2050, one-quarter of the population will be Hispanic residents and more than half will be nonwhite groups.
Frey said the data reinforce his ‘view that the nation’s diversity explosion’ represents an important part of its future.’
‘The nation’s labor force productivity and economic well-being will rely heavily on the success and integration of today’s and tomorrow’s increasingly multiracial younger population,’ he said.
Overall, 15 states saw a decline in population, led by California and New York, which lost a combined 1.2 million residents over the three-year period.
Most states saw their youth population decline. In California there are close to 500,000 fewer children than pre-pandemic, and New York has 272,000 fewer.
Meanwhile, Florida and Texas each gained about 100,000 young people.
The population shrank in six of the 15 largest metro areas. The New York City metro area had the biggest overall drop, with fewer White, Black and Hispanic people, while the population of Asians and people of two or more races increased.
The shifting demographics will have an impact on several aspects of society, Frey said.
The changes will likely play a key role in local politics as various racial coalitions gain or lose strength, as people often vote along racial lines.
Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla, is among those to warn that Democratic politicians are permitting illegal immigration to build and consolidate political power and create a ‘permanent one-party deep socialist state.’
With agencies.