Al Jazeera English is reporting that as of July 2012, ethnic minorities make up 50 percent of youth under the age of five and and that number is expected to grow, according to census estimates. The author writes:
“For the first time, America’s racial and ethnic minorities make up about half of the under-5 age group, the US government has said.
The historic shift, announced on Thursday, shows how young people are at the forefront of sweeping changes by race and class.
The new census estimates, a snapshot of the US population as of July 2012, come a year after the Census Bureau reported that whites had fallen to a minority among babies.
The population younger than 5 stood at 49.9 percent minority in 2012.
‘More so than ever, we need to recognise the importance of young minorities for the growth and vitality of our labour force and economy,’ said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analysed the census data.'”
Fueled by immigration and high rates of birth, particularly among Hispanics, racial and ethnic minorities are now growing more rapidly in numbers than whites.
Read more at Al Jazeera.
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