An acquaintance was arguing with me the other day that whites are actually in a current minority now in the US, with not only Hispanics but African Americans eclipsing us in terms of population. This seems obviously absurd to me, and since this acquaintance is constantly bringing up ludicrous “facts” like this, just once I’d like to actually look up the statistics and rub it in his face. I do remember reading that the growth of the Hispanic population is such that eventually they will be the majority in the US, but my recollection is that that is still several years or even decades down the line. Any cites?
Well, the first stop will be the
US Bureau of the Census. Here’s a table of the 2000 Census for the US (It’s a PDF). You can also find National Population Projections through 2010. Data by state is also available through the Census Bureau.
Hope this gets you started.
Your acquaintance is incorrect. According to the US Census bureau, the demographic breakdown for the 2000 Census was:
Total Population: 281,421,906
Hispanic or Latino: 35,035,818 (or 12%)
Black or African American: 36,419,434 (12.9%)
Native (Mainland): 4,119,301 (1.5%)
Asian: 11,898,828 (4.2%)
Native (Pacific Islands): 874,414 (0.3%)
Other: 18,521,406 (6.6%)
White: 216,930,975 (77.1)
Source: 2000 US Census
So people who identify themselves as “White” still make up more than all the other groups combined.
The 2000 US census has the following:
White 189,984,500
Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 34,474,440
Black or African American 34,557,034
American Indian and Alaska Native 4,031,924
Asian 11,601,685
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 790,580
Some other race 12,451,471
why both Tapioca Dexetrin’s numbers and mine can both come from the US Census Data (for the same year) and be different:
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My numbers included ALL people who identified as a subgroup, including people who indicated more than one race. (I think that TD’s are from the “one race” category. Note that “Hispanic” and “White” are not mutually exclusive, so you can get some double count.
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TD’s link is to a table that tries to account for the undercount. I’m not sure why the total population is so different, but there is a 8 million or so total difference between the two tables. Still not enough to account for your friend’s wildly inaccurate claim.
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We’re all brothers and sisters anyway, race is an artificial construct to try and explain superficial differences. Go forth and love one another right now. Apologies to the Byrds.
The other reason the two sets are so different is TD’s table is based on the 2000 Supplemental Survey. The Supplemental Survey is a sample, just like Summary File 3, except it covers only 1,203 counties in the U.S., and 58,000 housing units. It collected similar data to SF3, and was really intended only as a prototype for (I believe) a national intercensus survey. The fact that it is based on a survey is why TD’s table has confidence interval upper and lower bounds… 90% intervals, IIRC. According to the bureau, there are no bounds for total population because “the estimate is controlled. A statistical test is not appropriate.”
Your table, however, is based on the short form data, and would be considered the most reliable estimate possible of total population and race/ethnicity data. Note that the Census Bureau does not consider “Hispanic” to be a race, but rather an ethnicity. The number of persons reporting “not Hispanic” as well as “white alone” was 194,552,774, or 69.1% of the population. This would be the best representation of the people in the U.S. that would be considered “white.”
Needless to say, white people are still the overwhelming majority of Americans. It will probably be quite a while before white is the minority, and even then, that means that all other races/ethnicities combined are greater than “white.” I’d imagine we’re looking at at least a century or two before the Hispanic ethnicity could possibly become a larger percentage than the white, non-hispanic category.
In summary, the OP’s pal is full of it. Usually when I hear garbage about white people being “a minority in our own country,” what they mean is white, male, heterosexuals, which obviously are a minority compared to the rest of the humans living in the United States.