The nation’s population is one-third minority, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Tuesday.
“It’s a milestone that we’ve gradually been moving toward,” said U.S. Census spokesman Robert Bernstein.
In 2005, the nation’s minority population reached 98 million, or 33 percent of the country’s total of 294.4 million people, according to the mid-decade estimate. The estimates looked at census figures from July 1, 2004, to July 1, 2005, in which the country grew by 2.75 million.
John Fonte, director of Hudson Institute’s Center for American Common Culture, said that at the turn of the 20th century, Italians, Jews and Poles were considered minorities, but were assimilated into the American experience through patriotic programs.
“Being an American is not about ethnicity or race, but about loyality to the American Constitution and assimilating into American narative,” Fonte said.
With 43 million people, Hispanics remain the largest minority population and the fastest-growing. Hispanics accounted for nearly half the national population growth in the period covered by the report. The Hispanic population grew by 1.3 million, or 3.3 percent. Immigration accounted for 500,000 of the increase.
The Hispanic population in 2005 was much younger than the U.S. population as a whole. The median age for Hispanics was 27.2 years compared with 36.2 years for the rest of the population.
Blacks were the second-largest minority population with 39.7 million, followed by Asians (14.4 million), American Indians and Alaska natives (4.5 million), and native Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders (990,000).
The census also found:
» The number ofpeople age 85 and older reached 5.1 million
» Sixty-three percent of the population is of working age, 18 to 64.
» There were 104 males per every 100 females under 18. This ratio declines with age, however, with 72 men for every 100 women who are 65 years and older.
