43 Texas counties are now 'majority minority' WASHINGTON -- Anglos are now in the minority in nearly 1 in 10 U.S. counties. As of 2006, Anglos made up less than half the population in 303 of the nation's 3,141 counties, according to figures the Census Bureau is releasing today. (Texas has 254 counties.) Anglos were a minority in 262 counties in 2000, up from 183 in 1990. The Census Bureau's report has population estimates by race and ethnicity for every county in the nation. They are the first such estimates since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, scattering hundreds of thousands of people, many African-Americans. In Tarrant County in 2005, the most recent figures available, the population was 56.8 percent Anglo, 23.9 percent Hispanic or Latino, and 13.8 percent African-American. Texas has 43 counties with populations that are "majority minority" -- the most of any state, the Census Bureau reported. Nationally, the number of minorities topped 100 million for the first time in 2006 -- about a third of the population. By 2050, minorities will account for half of U.S. residents, according to Census Bureau projections. In 2006, eight counties that had not previously been majority-minority pushed the national total to 303. Two of those counties were in Texas -- Waller and Wharton in the suburban Houston area. Waller moved to 50.3 percent minority from 49.8 percent in 2005, and Wharton went from 49.5 to 50.09 minority. The largest jurisdictions passing the threshold between July 1, 2005, and July 1, 2006, were Denver County, Colo., and East Baton Rouge Parish, La. The other counties were in Texas, Montana, New Mexico and Virginia. Harris County gained 121,400 minority residents between 2005 and 2006, the most in the nation, fueled by an influx of Katrina evacuees and a booming Hispanic population. With Houston as its largest city, Harris County had a minority population of 2.5 million in 2006, comprising 63 percent of its total. "No other city in history has been changed as rapidly in its ethnic composition as Houston," said Stephen Klineberg, a Rice University sociologist. Since 1982, the Anglo population of Houston has declined and aged, a shift that led to Houston becoming a majority-minority city in the 1990s. Over the next 10 years, Houston will become increasingly Hispanic, with young families driving the growth, said Karl Eschbach, director of the Texas State Data Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio. http://www.star-telegram.com/national_news/story/196053.html
Just wanted to point out a couple of things, not that I disagree with the thrust of the article. Texas has some counties with hardly anyone living in them. I suspect that some of those that "flipped" happened to be a number of those counties. As for Houston, while the city of Houston has certainly changed in the way described in the article, the reality is that "Greater Houston" has an enormous population of "former 'white' Houstonians" that have moved out into the suburbs. I think that should have been mentioned in the article. The overall trend, however, is that Texas will become a state of minorities, with no real majority population. It's well on its way to being just that. D&D. Impeach Dildo and His Battery.
Because America is a diverse country and now finally this may usher in an era where our gov't may start really reflecting it.
that only works if minorities actually bothered to vote. I dont know about the rest of the minorities but Asian-Americans have a horrific turnout on election day.
but what do you want expect to be done? govt documents are in multiple languages (everything is in espanol).. what do you mean, exactly, by "reflecting" diverstiy?
affirmative action in politics! Barak Obama now only needs 180 electoral votes to win! WASP candidates need 300 electoral votes!
It's up to the Hispanics to run for office. There's something like only 24 members of the House of Rep. They are underrepresented but they need to run.
I'm not passing judgement on the pros and cons. Change is inevitable. I took an excellent upper level course in college on urban history. This stuff has been going on since the 19th century, at least. Eventually, living in the central city regains its allure, and you see central city renaissance occur, as we're seeing in Austin and I think in Houston, as well. The key is a commitment by local government, with state/federal assistance with large infrastructure investments, to lure people back. Mass transit. Proactive city incentives to promote building condos, apartments, and townhomes in the central city. Encouragement of entertainment and the like for the central city. Austin already has that in spades, and Houston has built a lot of very large projects to entice people downtown. People in the suburbs see renewed activity in the central city. Nightlife, eateries, bars, clubs, sidewalk cafes, with crowds of people enjoying the evenings, and being able to have a few too many and simply walk, take a taxi or a brief mass transit ride to home. They ponder spending 2 or 3 hours each day in a car, and the attractive alternative. End result? A "real city," with a vibrant downtown, home to tens of thousands. But it takes work. Impeach the Chump and His Puppeteer.
Minorities may bother to vote if they felt they could be represented. When you make up a few percent of a district, it makes it hard to have any representation. But now with whites not dominating every district, it makes it more likely that minority candidates will be able to win in a bunch of new districts. Thus the House will be far more representative of the population.
I'm guessing a lot of Hispanics are immigrants and they are not incline to vote. However, Hispanics have the highest birthrate among all the groups in the USA by a wide margin. So it'll be a few more years yet until the chlildren grow up and really give Hispanic candidates a chance to catch up and win plenty of seats.
You'd think that no matter what race of the people in govt, they'd legislate for the betterment of Americans, rather than thier people. If that were so, why would it matter about representation?