Hispanic Growth Becoming USA Majority

Delfino Rocha, right, and his sons Jesus, 10, left, and Eric, 14, center, listen from an overflow area during a local government meeting in Manassas, Va., on July 10. The Prince William County board of supervisors passed a mandate of measures that could deny services to illegal immigrants in the county. Prince William County and others neighboring Washington, D.C., were among the top 10 nationwide with fastest-growing Hispanic populations

USA (Edited by Jon Garrido, Hispanic News from AP, NYTimes, Washington Post) August 9, 2007 — In a further sign of the United States’ growing diversity, nonwhites now make up a majority in almost one third of the most populous counties in the country and in nearly one in 10 of all 3,100 counties, according to an analysis of census results to be released today.

Nationally, the number of minorities topped 100 million for the first time in 2006 about a third of the population. By 2050, minorities will account for half of U.S. residents, according to Census Bureau projections.

None of the traditional immigrant gateways, including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, remains among the fastest-growing Hispanic centers.

Rapidly growing numbers of Hispanics are fanning out across the USA settling in rural and suburban counties far from traditional immigrant strongholds.

In 303 counties, whites are now in the minority in nearly one in 10 U.S. counties. Eight more counties joined the list since 2005, and 205 others are nearing the mark with more than 40% minorities, nearly all in the South and West. And that increased diversity, fueled by immigration and higher birth rates among Hispanics, is straining race relations and sparking a backlash against immigrants in many communities.

"There's some culture shock," said Mark Mather of the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington based research agency. "But there is a momentum building, and it is going to continue."

The increases in areas that experienced little diversity until this decade intensify the uproar over immigration. Forty one states have enacted 171 laws this year aimed at illegal immigrants. About 100 communities have proposed similar ordinances; 40 have been enacted.

"We're seeing new immigrant minorities coming in to areas that haven't had very much minority populations or immigrant populations," says William Frey, demographer at the Brookings Institution. "It put immigration on the front burner politically. It scared a lot of people."

“The new wave of immigration, along with its continued dispersal to the suburbs and Sun Belt, is transforming the places which are now being classified as multiethnic and majority minority,” said Frey adding “The new melting pots are not large international gateways. Rather, many are fast-growing suburbs themselves.”

The number of Hispanics has soared since 2000 in counties such as Paulding near Atlanta, Kendall on the western edge of Chicago, and Stafford, Prince William and Loudoun in Virginia, outside Washington.

The Hispanic population in Pennsylvania's Luzerne County, two hours north of Philadelphia, nearly tripled since 2000, the fourth fastest increase among large counties. Luzerne is home to Hazleton, which enacted a law last year that would have fined landlords who rented to illegal immigrants and suspended licenses of companies that hire them. A federal judge last month ruled the law unconstitutional.

Immigrants who resettled in the USA in the 1990s typically moved from California to escape that state's recession, says Jeffrey Passel, demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center. They flocked east to jobs in poultry and meatpacking plants. Then the housing boom happened.

"Immigrants who were coming in no longer were going first to California," he says. "This is a very fast turnaround. It accelerated and it's just continuing. … What causes the friction is the rapid change much more than the absolute number."

Not all the changes in the July 1, 2006, county estimates are caused by immigration, but they're a strong indicator of where immigrants settle. Births and moves from other parts of the USA add to the growth.

The high birthrate among Hispanics accounted for more than half the growth in Hispanics this decade, according to Kenneth Johnson, demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute.

As young Hispanics settle in places where the aging population is largely white, the generation gap widens, says Peter Morrison, demographer at the RAND Corp. In Philadelphia County, for example, 14% of whites are 65 and older, and 5% of Hispanics are.

From July 1, 2005, to July 1, 2006, Washington inched ahead of El Paso in the number of Hispanic residents.

In 36 counties with more than 500,000 residents each, non-Hispanic whites are now a minority, up from 29 counties of that size in 2000.

From 2005 to 2006 alone, eight other mostly less-populous counties shifted to a majority of minorities, the Census Bureau said. They were Denver, Colo.; East Baton Rouge Parish, La.; Winkler, Waller and Wharton in Texas; Blaine, Mont.; Colfax, N.M.; and Manassas Park, Va., an independent city that is considered the equivalent of a county.

In a new study for the Population Reference Bureau, Mark Mather and Kelvin Pollard found that Hispanic people were increasingly attracted to job opportunities and lower costs outside major metropolitan areas.

“Between 2000 and 2006, the total population in small towns and rural areas increased by 3 percent, but the Hispanic population in these counties grew from 2.6 million to 3.2 million, a 22 percent increase,” the authors of the study wrote.

So far this decade, they added, “there are also new areas of growth, including exurban counties in the Atlanta, Chicago, New York, and Washington, D.C., metropolitan areas, plus parts of Texas, central Florida, and a few other states.”

Since 2000, the Hispanic population more than doubled in metropolitan Winchester, Va.; Scranton, Pa.; Cape Coral, Fla.; and Hagerstown, Md.. The largest numerical increases were in metropolitan Los Angeles (576,630); Riverside, Calif., (545,152); Dallas (472,222); Houston (470,157); and New York (418,720).

Metropolitan Phoenix; Atlanta; Dallas; Houston; Las Vegas; Austin, Tex.; Charlotte; Portland, Ore.; and Raleigh, N.C., each recorded gains in non-Hispanic whites of more than 100,000 since 2000. The largest losses were registered by metropolitan New York (248,422), Los Angeles (193,109), San Francisco (127,151) and New Orleans (111,162).

Harris County, Tex., home to Houston, gained 121,400 minority residents from 2005 to 2006, the most of any county. Sixty-three percent of its residents were members of minorities.

Maricopa County, Ariz., home to Phoenix, recorded the biggest numerical increase in Hispanic residents (71,000) and also the biggest increase in non-Hispanic whites (35,500).

Many of the nation's biggest counties have long had large minority populations. But that diversity is now spreading to the suburbs and beyond, causing resentment in some areas.

In northern Virginia, Teresita Jacinto said she feels less welcome today than when she first arrived 30 years ago, when she was one of few Hispanics in the area.

"Not only are we feeling less welcome, we are feeling threatened," said Jacinto, a teacher in Woodbridge, Va., about 20 miles southwest of Washington.

"I don't think Hispanics are seeking to make white people a minority," Jacinto said. "It's just a reality."