Hablas espanol?: the changing face of America

A new US Census Bureau report predicts that whites will be an ethnic minority by 2042. This shift will undoubtedly have important political implications

According to the Times:

‘“Obama is 2050,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institute in Washington. “Multiracial. Multi-ethnic. By then, the term ‘Hispanic’ and the term ‘white’ will have no meaning because there will be so much inter-mixing.” By 2050, non-whites will account for 54 per cent of the US population, compared with 34 per cent today, as it grows from 305 million to 439 million people.

The white population will grow only slightly, to 203.3 million from 199.8 million today. The number of Hispanics will almost triple to 133 million from 47 million, to make up 30 per cent of the population, up from 15 per cent today. That means that almost one in three people in America will be Hispanic, compared with less than one in six today.

Mr Frey noted that by the 2028 election a majority of young adults aged 18-29 will be non-white.

He predicts a growing divergence between the political concerns of the ageing white population, who focus primarily on healthcare and social security, and ethnically diverse young families, who are more interested in issues such as education and home ownership.

“I think that is going to be a divide that national politicians, presidential candidates, will have to appeal to, all through the country,” he said.
Mr Frey sees this year’s presidential contest as representing the two extremes of this demographic divide. “Both presidential candidates are book ends of the projection,” he said. “There is nothing in the middle.”’