But the rapid growth of the Hispanic population isn't just due to higher birthrates: Minority women also are younger on average, so more of them are in childbearing years. Among the roughly four million children born in the U.S. between July 2010 and July 2011, 50.4% belonged to a racial or ethnic group that in previous generations would have classified them as minorities, up from 48.6% in the same period two years earlier, the Census Bureau said Thursday. Among children younger than 5, there are more minorities than whites in virtually every jurisdiction except Arlington and Loudoun counties. But among all ethnic groups, non-Hispanic whites saw births decline just over 10%, more than any other group. Last year 1,025 non-Hispanic white children were born for every 1,000 who died, compared with a ratio of 3,940 births to 1,000 deaths for all other ethnic groups, according to Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. For the first time in U.S. history, whites of European ancestry account for less than half of newborn children, marking a demographic tipping point that is already changing the nation's politics, economy and workforce. William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, said the slowdown in immigration may delay the nation’s transformation to a majority-minority society from 2042 to 2050 or beyond. But he said it will not prevent it. In-migration refers to people moving into a place from other countries and states, rather than people born to those already there.
– For the first time in US history, a majority of babies are members of minority ethnic groups, according to new census figures. Of the roughly 4 million born between July 2010 and July 2011, 50.4% belonged to minority groups. The data show that the huge demographic shift under way has as much to do with the aging of the white population as it does with the growth in other groups, the Wall Street Journal notes. Births among the non-Hispanic white population dropped a full 10% in that 12-month period. Demographers say that without the growth in the Hispanic population—now America's second-largest population group—there would be a declining population and a disproportionate number of elderly citizens, as in Japan and parts of Europe. "We were already seeing a declining youth population in large parts of the country," a demographer with the Brookings Institution tells the Washington Post. "Without immigrants, we’d be essentially youthless. We had a perfect storm. We got them all coming, younger immigrants having children, at a time when we really needed them."