Minorities make up majority of U.S. babies
WASHINGTON - For the first time, minorities make up a majority of babies in the U.S., part of a sweeping race change and a growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies.
Preliminary census estimates also show the share of African-American households headed by women -- mostly single mothers -- now exceeds African-American households with married couples, a sign of declining U.S. marriages overall but also of continuing challenges for black youths without involved fathers.
The findings, based on the latest government data, offer a preview of final 2010 census results being released this summer that provide detailed breakdowns by age, race and householder relationships.
Demographers say the numbers provide the clearest confirmation yet of a changing social order, one in which racial and ethnic minorities will become the U.S. majority by midcentury.
"We're moving toward an acknowledgment that we're living in a different world than the 1950s, where married or two-parent heterosexual couples are now no longer the norm for a lot of kids, especially kids of color," said Laura Speer, coordinator of the Kids Count project for the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation.
"It's clear the younger generation is very demographically different from the elderly, something to keep in mind as politics plays out on how programs for the elderly get supported," she said. "It's critical that children are able to grow to compete internationally and keep state economies rolling."
Currently, non-Hispanic whites make up just under half of all children 3 years old, which is the youngest age group shown in the Census Bureau's October 2009 annual survey, its most recent. In 1990, more than 60 percent of children in that age group were white.
William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution who analyzed the data, said figures in the 2009 survey can sometimes be inexact compared with the 2010 census, which queries the entire nation. But he said when factoring in the 2010 data released so far, minorities outnumber whites among babies under age 2.
The preliminary figures are based on an analysis of the Current Population Survey as well as the 2009 American Community Survey, which sampled 3 million U.S. households to determine that whites made up 51 percent of babies younger than 2. After taking into account a larger-than-expected jump in the minority child population in the 2010 census, the share of white babies falls below 50 percent.
Twelve states and the District of Columbia now have white populations below 50 percent among children under age 5:
- Arizona
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Maryland
- Mississippi
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- Texas
That's up from six states and the District of Columbia in 2000.
At current growth rates, seven more states could flip to "minority-majority" status among small children in the next decade: Illinois, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, South Carolina and Delaware.
By contrast, whites make up the vast majority of older Americans -- 80 percent of seniors 65 and older and roughly 73 percent of people ages 45-64. Many states with high percentages of white seniors also have particularly large shares of minority children, including Arizona, Nevada, California, Texas and Florida.
"The recent emergence of this cultural generation gap in states with fast growth of young Hispanics has spurred heated discussions of immigration and the use of government services," Frey said. "But the new census, which will show a minority majority of our youngest Americans, makes plain that our future labor force is absolutely dependent on our ability to integrate and educate a new diverse child population."
Kenneth Johnson, a sociology professor and senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire, noted that much of the race change is being driven by increases in younger Hispanic women having more children than do white women, who have lower birth rates and as a group are moving beyond their prime childbearing years.
Because minority births are driving the rapid changes in the population, "any institution that touches or is impacted by children will be the first to feel the impact," Johnson said, citing as an example child and maternal health care that will have to be attentive to minorities' needs.
The numbers come amid public debate over hotly contested federal and state issues, from immigration and gay marriage to the rising cost of government benefits such as Medicare and Medicaid, that are resonating in different ways by region and demographics.
Alabama became the latest state this month to pass a wide-ranging anti-immigration law, which in part requires schools to report students' immigration status to state authorities. That follows tough immigration measures passed in similarly Republican-leaning states such as Georgia, Arizona and South Carolina.
But governors in Massachusetts, New York and Illinois, which long have been home to numerous immigrants, have opted out of the federal Secure Communities program that aims to deport dangerous criminals, saying it has made illegal immigrants afraid of reporting crimes to police. California may soon opt out as well.
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Nah it just shows who can't get it up.
You baggers aren'y paying for anything that everyone else pays for.
Don't believe me? find a "welfare mother" and both of you go to the grocery store, and buy the same things.
On both receipts there is a line just before the total, that says "tax".
Now talk that same santorum
I could see that if there is other than foods on the ticket. However, many states do not charge tax on foodstuffs or medical supplies.
Also, many states do not charge tax if the purchase is with food stamps.
Like it or not there is quite a bit of truth to this. Police and policy makers think that they have a answer to all the problem, they do not. They forget some of the rules of human nature. The minorities particular the newcomers have a much easer time in the United States, than they would have in their home land, they do not see the United States as being such a police state, however those of us who have seen so many of our rights, and freedoms simply vanish are very reluctant, to make babies, Particular knowing, how difficult their financial future will be.
An extreme example of this rule would be how living under Nicolae Ceausecu was, the citizen trying to avoid making babies, they had an extreme high HIV rate.
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That almost sounds like an oxymoron. In any event, so? If you stop & think about it "white" U.S. citizens have always been in the minority. Heck, there are almost as many Chinese all by themselves as there are "white" people (read N. American & European w/Aussie & some others thrown in) and then you add the Japanese, Africian, Latino, and the rest of the world's population & you better get over the idea that being "white" somehow makes you special.
In the 1960s, we let Senator Kennedy pass sweeping immigration legislation that all but assured this would happen to us, and unfortunately, no one at the time did anything to stop it. The new legislation favored mass immigration from non-European countries, and every decade that followed, wave after wave of "minority" immigrants flooded into our country. We also chose to pretend to secure our southern border with Mexico by having a handful of border agents patrol a massive border, we refused to build a fence, and we even made it clear to the border to not try very hard to do their jobs or they would be punished. This way, politicians could act like they were tough on illegal immigration, when in reality, the border patrol only caught a tiny percentage of the huge waves of immigrants flooding across our border.
Now, it really is too late to do anything about it.
We will become a "minority majority" country in this century.
What is wrong with that, you ask?
It really only matters if you have kids and grandchildren and you care about their futures in this country. I don't have any kids and I am old, so it doesn't matter that much to me.
But for everyone else out there, what will it mean for them? Well, look around you at every other "minority majority" country in the world... would you want to live there? Take for example, Mexico, would you want to live there? Why? What do you think will happen when these people make up the majority of our country? You can already see the answer in the public schools in central Phoenix. When I was a little kid, I went to Creighton School in Phoenix, Arizona. It was mostly white back then. I received an excellent education. Look at it now. It is almost 100% Mexican now, and compare the educational quality of that school to what I experienced, well, there is no comparison. A lot of these kids can barely read, write, or speak in English. When I was going there, I don't remember any of our 8th graders being illiterate in what used to be our nation's language-- English.
If you want to see the future of the United States, look no further than our wonderful neighbors to the south-- Mexico. We will soon be like them.
I'm just glad I probably won't live long enough to see what happens to my country.
I do feel sorry for all the kids out there. There have a rude awakening coming for them.
Sadly, your angered vision blocks the view that this was, and still has capabilities of being, the most opportunistic country in the world. By holding grudges or your hand out seeking a free ride you will never understand.
The US Government plagues on these people to rely on subsidized programs to keep their mediocre lives in tact. It's a sad situation that is coming to roost as this country cannot continue to pay for their downfall.