AP: Texas Now Minority Majority State

By Alicia A. Caldwell
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thursday, August 11, 2005

EL PASO -- With a growing Hispanic population, Texas has joined three other states and the District of Columbia as a majority-minority state, according to population estimates to be released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Hispanics are now the largest minority group in California, New Mexico and Texas. In Hawaii, Asian Americans are the largest minority, and in the nation's capital, African Americans are.

According to population estimates based on the 2000 census, about 50.2 percent of Texans are minorities. In the 2000 census, minorities accounted for about 47 percent of the nation's second-most populous state.

Five other states -- Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona -- aren't far behind, with about 40 percent minorities. African Americans and Hispanics are the largest minority groups in those states.

While a state demographer said the new estimates should be no surprise, public policy analysts said these states, and the country as a whole, need to raise the level of minority education and professional achievement. Otherwise, these areas risk becoming poorer and less competitive in the world market.

With the nation's under-18 minority population already nearing that of Anglos of the same age group, the nation should be more than half minorities by 2050, said Steve Murdock, a demographer at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Recent data showed that 42 percent of U.S. residents under 18 are minorities, compared with 58 percent for Anglos.

Lawmakers need to start with immigration reform, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"Immigration is good for the United States. . . . It's important for us to keep our doors open, but we need to keep an eye on the people coming in," Frey said. "While initially it will be a state problem, eventually it will be a national issue, and education is the best way to deal with it."

Frey said bringing minorities' education and salary levels in line with those of Anglos should be a top priority, and it's an effort that needs federal support.

This demographic shift, which Frey and other experts attribute to Hispanic immigration, could also lead to more bilingual education. The demand already exists and is not being addressed, said Tatcho Mindiola, director of the University of Houston's Center for Mexican American Studies.

Mindiola said the country should also expect to see a political shift, which probably would include more Hispanics running for public office at all levels of government.

Complications from the cultural shift aren't likely to be exclusive to states that have majority-minority populations, Frey said.

Nevada, for instance, has seen a massive influx of minorities in the past 15 years, reducing the percentage of Anglos since the 1990s from nearly 80 percent to about 60 percent.

Officials in states like Nevada will quickly have to figure out "how immigrant populations and an aging white population can be served at the same time," Frey said.