In the United States of America, majority-minority area or minority-majority area is a term describing a U.S. state or jurisdiction whose population is composed of less than 50% non-Hispanic whites. Racial data is derived from self-identification questions on the U.S. census and on U.S. Census Bureau estimates. (See race and ethnicity in the United States census). The term is often used in voting rights law to designate voting districts that are designed under the Voting Rights Act to enable ethnic or language minorities "the opportunity to elect their candidate of choice." [1] In that context, the term was first used by the Supreme Court in 1977. [2] The Court had previously used the term in employment discrimination and labor relations cases. [3]
From colonial times to the early-twentieth century, much of the Deep South had a black majority. Three Southern states had populations that were majority-black: Louisiana (from 1810 until about 1890 [19] ), South Carolina (until the 1920s [20] ), and Mississippi (from the 1830s to the 1930s [21] ).
In the same period, Georgia, [22] Alabama, [23] and Florida [24] had populations that were nearly 50% black.
Maryland, [25] North Carolina, [26] and Virginia [27] had black populations approaching or exceeding 40%. Texas's black population reached 30%. [28]
The demographics of these states changed markedly from the 1890s through the 1960s, as two waves of the Great Migration resulted in more than 6,500,000 African Americans to abandon the economically depressed, segregated Deep South in search of better employment opportunities and living conditions, first in Northern and Midwestern industrial cities, and later west to California. One-fifth of Florida's black population had left the state by 1940, for instance. [29] During the last thirty years of the twentieth century into the twenty-first century, scholars have documented a reverse New Great Migration of black people to southern states, but typically to urban destinations in the New South, which have pleasant climates and developing economies. [30]
Washington, D.C., was one of the magnets for black people during the Great Migration, and reached a majority-black status during the migration's latter stages. The black proportion has declined since the 1990s due to gentrification and expanding opportunities elsewhere, with some leaving the district because of rising housing costs or for opportunities in the South. [31] Many black people have moved to Maryland, Georgia, Florida, and Texas. They are joined by others migrating to jobs in states of the New South in a reverse of the Great Migration. [30] Per the 2020 Census, the Black population represented 40.9% of the D.C. population [32] — a considerable decline from 75% in the late-1970s. At the same time, Asian and Hispanic populations have increased in the District, and it is still classified as a majority-minority area.
Since 1965, changes in the origin of foreign immigration have resulted in increases in the number of majority-minority areas, most notably in California. [33] Its legal resident population was 89.5% 'non-Hispanic white' in the 1940s, but by 2020, was 34.7% 'non-Hispanic white'. [34]
In 2010, minority children comprised the majority among children in the six states that were already majority-minority, plus the following four: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi. [35]
Hawaii is the only state to have never had a non-Hispanic white majority. In addition, all populated United States territories have never had a non-Hispanic white majority. New Mexico is the only state where a single non-white group, Hispanic Americans, make up over 50% of the population; this is in addition to a large Native American population making up almost 10% of the population.
Many cities in the United States became majority-minority by 2010. [36] Out of the top 15 cities by population, Columbus, Ohio is the only city not classified as majority-minority.[ clarification needed ]
As of 2012, 50 metropolitan areas in the U.S. are majority-minority. [37]
As of 2015, 12% of U.S. counties are majority-minority. [38]
The first data for New Mexico was a 5% sample in 1940, which estimated non-Hispanic whites at 50.9%. [39] Hispanics are not classified as a race, according to the U.S. census, but as an ethnic and cultural group of any race. Of respondents who listed Hispanic origin, some identified as being of the White race, roughly half gave responses tabulated under "Some other race" (e.g. giving a national origin such as "Mexican" or a designation such as "Mestizo" as race), and much smaller numbers listed Black, American Indian, or Asian as their race.
In U.S. censuses since 1990, self-identification by respondents has been the primary way to identify race of residents. Presumption of race based on countries or regions given in the ancestry question is used only when a respondent has answered the ancestry question but not the race question. The U.S. census defines "White people" very broadly as "people having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa, [40] i.e. Caucasoid. This definition has changed through the years.
Although the census attempts to enumerate both citizens and non-citizens, the undocumented immigrant population of the United States has proven hard to quantify; the census uses a 12 million base estimate nationally. [41]
Race/ethnicity by location per 2020 census data [42] White populations are marked in italics. Largest non-white groups are marked in bold. | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Area | White (all) | Non-Hispanic White | Asian American | African American | Hispanic or Latino American | Native American | Native Hawaiian | Two or more races |
California | 41.2% | 34.7% | 15.4% | 6.7% | 39.4% | 1.6% | 0.3% | 14.6% |
Hawaii | 22.9% | 21.6% | 37.2% | 1.6% | 8.5% | 0.3% | 11.0% | 25.3% |
New Mexico | 51.0% | 36.5% | 1.8% | 2.1% | 47.7% | 10.0% | 0.1% | 19.9% |
Texas | 50.1% | 39.7% | 5.4% | 12.2% | 39.3% | 1.0% | 0.1% | 17.6% |
District of Columbia | 39.6% | 38.0% | 4.8% | 41.4% | 11.3% | 0.5% | 0.1% | 8.1% |
Maryland | 58.5% | 49.1% | 6.7% | 31.1% | 8.5% | 0.6% | -- | 2.9% |
United States | 61.6% | 57.8% | 6.0% | 12.4% | 18.7% | 1.1% | 0.2% | 10.2% |
In the United States for the 2018/2019 school year, 78.7% of white public school students attended schools where they are the majority, compared to 55.9% of Hispanics, 42.0% of African Americans, and 14.3% of Asians. [43] At a national level in the US with regards to racial classification, public schools obtained majority minority status in 2014. [44]
Normally, a state is classified as majority-minority because of the ethnic or racial makeup of residents, but other criteria are occasionally used, such as religion, disability, or age. For example, the majority of Utah residents are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Christian denomination that is a religious minority throughout the rest of the United States. In addition to Mormon-dominant Utah, Roman Catholic majority Rhode Island and Louisiana are the only states in the U.S. where a single denomination constitutes a majority of the population. (By contrast, numerous denominations are classified as Protestant.) But, no U.S. state has a majority composed of any non-Christian group, except for Hawaii, where 51.1% of the population follow religions that would be non-mainstream in the rest of the United States. Hawaii is classified as religious majority of Unaffiliated, including agnostics, atheists, humanists, the irreligious, and secularists (non-practicing).
In January 2016, CUNY sociologist Richard Alba wrote an article in The American Prospect arguing that the way in which majority-minority calculations are made by the Census are misleading. Anyone identifying as of Hispanic, Asian, or Black ancestry is classified as non-white, although they may also have white ancestry. Alba argues that the incomes, marriage patterns, and social identities of people of who are mixed Hispanic-white and Asian-white are closer to those of white people than monoracial Hispanics or Asians. Thus, when the Census projects that non-Hispanic whites will be less than 50% of the population by the 2040s, Alba believes these people of mixed-race ancestry are improperly excluded from that category. [45]
The United States had an official estimated resident population of 334,914,895 on July 1, 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This figure includes the 50 states and the District of Columbia but excludes the population of five unincorporated U.S. territories as well as several minor island possessions. The United States is the third most populous country in the world. The Census Bureau showed a population increase of 0.4% for the twelve-month period ending in July 2022, below the world average annual rate of 0.9%. The total fertility rate in the United States estimated for 2022 is 1.665 children per woman, which is below the replacement fertility rate of approximately 2.1.
Hancock County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,735. The county seat is Sparta. The county was created on December 17, 1793, and named for John Hancock, a Founding Father of the American Revolution.
Burke County is a county located along the eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia in the Piedmont. As of the 2020 census, the population was 24,596. The county seat is Waynesboro. Burke County is part of the Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC metropolitan statistical area.
The Deep South or the Lower South is a cultural and geographic subregion of the Southern United States. The term was first used to describe the states which were most economically dependent on plantations and slavery. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the region suffered economic hardship and was a major site of racial tension during and after the Reconstruction era. Before 1945, the Deep South was often referred to as the "Cotton States" since cotton was the primary cash crop for economic production. The civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s helped usher in a new era, sometimes referred to as the New South. The Deep South is part of the highly-religious, socially conservative Bible Belt and is currently a Republican Party stronghold.
The demographics of Chicago show that it is a large, and ethnically and culturally diverse metropolis. It is the third largest city and metropolitan area in the United States by population. Chicago was home to over 2.7 million people in 2020, accounting for over 25% of the population in the Chicago metropolitan area, home to approximately 9.6 million.
White Americans are Americans who identify as white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. According to the 2020 census, 71%, or 235,411,507 people, were White alone or in combination, and 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were White alone. This represented a national white demographic decline from a 72.4% white alone share of the U.S. population in 2010.
The United States has a racially and ethnically diverse population. At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recent United States census recognized five racial categories, as well as people who belong to two or more of the racial categories. The United States also recognizes the broader notion of ethnicity. The 2000 census and 2010 American Community Survey inquired about the "ancestry" of residents, while the 2020 census allowed people to enter their "origins". The Census Bureau also classified respondents as either Hispanic or Latino, identifying as an ethnicity, which comprises the minority group in the nation.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2023, Texas was the second largest state in population after California, with a population of 30,503,301, an increase of more than 1.3 million people, or 4.7%, since the 29,145,505 of the 2020 census. Its apportioned population in 2020 was 29,183,290. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the state of Texas has experienced strong population growth. Texas has many major cities and metropolitan areas, along with many towns and rural areas. Much of the population is concentrated in the major cities of Dallas–Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, McAllen, and El Paso and their corresponding metropolitan areas. The first four aforementioned main urban centers are also referred to as the Texas Triangle megaregion.
Caribbean Americans or West Indian Americans are Americans who trace their ancestry to the Caribbean. Caribbean Americans are a multi-ethnic and multi-racial group that trace their ancestry further in time mostly to Africa, as well as Asia, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and to Europe. As of 2016, about 13 million — about 4% of the total U.S. population — have Caribbean ancestry.
The District of Columbia is a federal district with an ethnically diverse population. In 2020, the District had a population of 689,545 people, with a resident density of 11,515 people per square mile.
Florida is the third-most populous state in the United States. Its residents include people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national and religious backgrounds. The state has attracted immigrants, particularly from Latin America. Florida's majority ethnic group are European Americans, with approximately 65% of the population identifying as White. National ethnic communities in the state include Cubans, who migrated en masse following the revolution in the mid 20th century. They have been joined by other immigrants from Latin America, and Spanish is spoken by more than 20% of the state's population, with high usage especially in the Miami-Dade County area.
As of the 2020 United States census, Arizona had a population of 7,151,502.
The demographics of Hispanic and Latino Americans depict a population that is the second-largest ethnic group in the United States, 62 million people or 18.7% of the national population.
Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans, also called Asian Hispanics or Asian Latinos, are Americans of Asian ancestry and ancestry from Spain or Latin America. It also refers to Asians from Latin America that speak the Spanish or Portuguese language natively and immigrated to the United States. This includes Hispanic and Latino Americans who identify themselves as Asian Americans.
Georgia is a South Atlantic U.S. state with a population of 10,711,908 according to the 2020 United States census, or just over 3% of the U.S. population. The majority of the state's population is concentrated within Metro Atlanta, although other highly populated regions include: West Central and East Central Georgia; West, Central, and East Georgia; and Coastal Georgia; and their Athens, Columbus, Macon and Warner Robins, Augusta, Savannah, Hinesville, and Brunswick metropolitan statistical areas.
Non-Hispanic Whites, Non-Latino Whites, or more simply White Americans, are Americans classified by the United States census as "white" and not Hispanic. According to the United States Census Bureau yearly estimates, as of July 1, 2022, Non-Hispanic whites make up about 59.3% of the U.S. population, or 197,639,521 people. The United States Census Bureau defines white to include European Americans, Middle Eastern Americans, and North African Americans. Americans of European ancestry are divided into various ethnic groups. More than half of the white population are German, Irish, English, Italian, French and Polish Americans. Many Americans are also the product of other European groups that migrated to parts of the US in the 19th and 20th centuries, as the bulk of immigrants from various countries in Northern, Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as the Caucasus region, migrated to the United States.
The racial and ethnic demographics of the United States have changed dramatically throughout its history.
White Marylanders are White Americans living in Maryland. As of 2019, they comprise 57.3% of the state's population. 49.8% of the population is non-Hispanic white, making Maryland a majority minority state. The regions of Western Maryland, Southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore all have majority white populations. Many white Marylanders also live in Central Maryland, including Baltimore, as well as in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Garrett County (97.5%) and Carroll County (91.9%) are the counties with the highest percentage of white Americans. Garrett and Carroll counties also have the highest percentage of non-Hispanic whites at 96.3% and 88.7%, respectively. Prince George's County (27%), Baltimore (30.4%), and Charles County (42.8%) have the lowest percentages of white people. Prince George's County has the lowest percentage of non-Hispanic whites, at 12.5% of the population. White Marylanders are a minority in Baltimore, Cambridge, Charles County, Jessup, Owings Mills, Prince George's County, Randallstown, and White Oak. Non-Hispanic whites are the plurality in Montgomery County, Columbia, Elkridge, Reisterstown, Salisbury, and Severn.
The demographics of the City of Miami are monitored by the U.S. Census Bureau. Its population of nearly 450,000 ranks 44th in the United States and 2nd in Florida.
At the national level, public schools became majority-minority in 2014.