U.S. census showed first drop in white population since 1790

The United States census showed for the first time since 1790, a drop in the population that considers itself white, which fell by 8.6% in the decade between 2010 and 2020.

This is how the data released this Thursday, according to which the United States recorded a population of 331,449,281 people in the 2020 census, with the white population as the largest group (235 million) and the Hispanic as the largest minority, consisting of 62.1 million.

“Our population is much more multiracial, diverse and multicultural than what we had previously measured”said Nicholas Jones, director of the agency’s racial and ethnic research division.

Of the total population, the largest group is still white people, 235 million people, of which 204.3 identify as exclusively white and 31.1 as white and of another race or ethnicity.

The largest minority of the American population is made up of 62.1 million Latinos or Hispanics. Among this group, those who consider themselves “white” declined 53.9% in a decade, and those who said they were “two or more races” increased by 567%.

The third population category after “whites” and “Latinos” is made up of those who, faced with the questionnaire presented by the census, have chosen to identify themselves as members of “another race”. a selection to which 49.9 million people have subscribed. This is the population group that has experienced the largest percentage increase since the 2010 census, with an increase of 733%Jones said.

The fourth category is made up of blacks or African Americans, which total 46.9 million of which 41.1 million identify exclusively with this breed.

The fifth category is made up of those who identify with two or more races, and that totals 33.8 million people.

In its Racial and Ethnic Diversity Index, the Census Bureau found that the states with the most diverse populations are Hawaii and California, followed by Nevada, Texas, Maryland, District of Columbia, New York and New Jersey.

The census is conducted in the United States every ten years by constitutional mandate and the distribution of political representations of States in Congress and the Electoral College depends on its results, and billions of dollars in federal funding for infrastructure, education, health, housing and social services.

The Census Bureau released its statistics based on the registration made last year as part of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The census also had to deal with President Donald Trump’s efforts to include the issue of citizenship on the registration form and for the exclusion of undocumented migrants when distributing the political representations of each state.

These results acquire critical importance for political parties and candidates seeking to tailor their campaigns to the demographic profile of their voters and the deputation of each state to the Electoral College.

(With information from EFE)

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