Aug 11, 2021 - Politics & Policy

America's white population expected to shrink

Erica Pandey

A diverse crowd of new Americans at a naturalization ceremony. — Immigrants being sworn in as United States citizens in El Paso, Texas. (Photo by Paul Ratje / AFP via Getty Images)

The number of white people in the United States is expected to show a decline in the latest U.S. Census Bureau data for the first time since the census' inception, reports the Washington Post.

The big picture: If this projection is borne out by the census data — set to be released this week — it will mean the white decline has come around eight years earlier than experts predicted, William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, told the Post.

The U.S. population is expected to show just 7.4% growth in the last decade — the slowest in history, except for the 1930s. The bulk of the growth is from people of color.

Hispanic people are projected to account for half of the population growth.
The share of Asians in the U.S. is expected to jump from 3% in 2010 to 6% in 2020. The share of Black people holds steady at 12.5%.

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America's white population expected to shrink

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