Majority minority in the United States

States

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), South Carolina (until the 1920s), and Mississippi (from the 1830s to the 1930s).

In the same period, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida had populations that were nearly 50% black; while Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia had black populations approaching or exceeding 40%. Texas's black population reached 30%.

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. 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.

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. 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. Per the 2020 Census, the Black population represented 40.9% of the D.C. population — a considerable decline from 75% in the late-1970s. At the same time, the Asian, Hispanic, and Mixed race populations have all 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. Its legal resident population was 89.5% 'non-Hispanic white' in the 1940s, but by 2020, was 34.7% 'non-Hispanic white'.

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.

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.

Cities

Many cities in the United States became majority-minority by 2010. Out of the top 20 cities by population in 2020, only Indianapolis (50.08%), Columbus (51.97%), Denver (54.33%), and Seattle (59.45%) retain non-Hispanic white majorities.

As of 2012, 50 metropolitan areas in the U.S. are majority-minority.

As of 2015, 12% of U.S. counties are majority-minority.

Data collection

The first data for New Mexico was a 5% sample in 1940, which estimated non-Hispanic whites at 50.9%. 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, 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.

Maps and graphs

Majority-minority counties in the United States by state (2020 Census)

Majority_minority_counties_in_Alabama_2020_Census.png|Alabama Majority minority Boroughs and Census Areas in Alaska 2020 census.png|Alaska Majority minority counties in Arizona US Census 2020.png|Arizona Majority_minority_counties_in_Arkansas_2020_Census_(1).png|Arkansas Majority_minority_counties_in_California_2020_Census.png|California Majority minority counties in Florida US Census 2020.png|Florida Majority minority counties in Georgia US Census 2020.png|Georgia Majority minority counties in Illinois (2020 census).png|Illinois Majority minority parishes in Louisiana 2020 Census.png|Louisiana Majority_minority_counties_in_Maryland_2020_Census.png|Maryland Majority minority counties in Mississippi 2020 Census.png|Mississippi Majority minority counties in Missouri (2020 census).png|Missouri

Majority minority counties in North Carolina U S Census 2020 (1).png|North Carolina Majority minority counties in South Carolina 2020 Census.png|South Carolina Majority minority counties in Texas based on 2020 Census data.png|Texas Majority_minority_counties_in_Virginia_2020_Census_(2).png|Virginia Majority minority counties in Wisconsin US Census 2020.png|Wisconsin

Institutions

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. At a national level in the US with regards to racial classification, public schools obtained majority minority status in 2014.

Other uses

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).

Criticism

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 is 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 descent are closer to those of non-Hispanic 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.

References

References

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