THE NEW POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES — LOW GROWTH, RAPID AGING, AND A YOUNG DIVERSITY
While the census results confirm what studies predicted, the stagnation in population growth — the decrease in the percentage of the white population, and its aging — the figures also confirm the emergence of a new multicultural generation that is the growth engine for of the United States, and Latin Americans continue to lead.
The latest census estimates indicate that the growth in U.S. population from July 2019 to the same month of 2020 was the lowest during the past 100 years.
Growth was only 0.35%, according to The Brookings Institution, a research nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.
The low population growth could be the result of the economic recession as a consequence of the pandemic and the aggressive policies of the Trump government against immigration.
Although the figures already revealed the decline of the white population in the country as a result of a lower birth rate, it’s aging, and therefore a higher number of deaths, the new data confirm what was expected.
Between 2010 and 2020, for example, the number of people over 55 years of age grew by 27% in the United States.
The dynamics are different for other races and ethnic groups, which today account for the largest population growth in the United States. The Latin American population in the United States (Latinos or Hispanics) increased over the last decade by 10 million people, more than half of the nation’s growth. The Asian population increased by 4.3 million, black Americans increased by 3.2 million, and people of two or more races contributed with a growth of 1.7 million people.
According to the figures, in 2019, the average age of white Americans was 43.7 vs. 29.8 for Hispanic Americans (Latinos or Hispanics), 34.6 for African Americans, 37.5 for Asians, and 20.9 for people who identify as being of two or more races.
U.S. Latin Americans (Hispanics, Latinos) are 18.5% of the country’s population and the second-largest ethnic group in the nation.
There are 60.6 million Latin Americans (Hispanic, Latinos) in the United States, according to the 2020 census. They are 18.5% of the total population and the country’s second-largest racial or ethnic group, behind white non-Hispanics.
During the past decade, the country’s population grew by 18.9 million, and Latin Americans accounted for more than half (52%) of this growth, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of new U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
U.S. Latin Americans accounted for 75% of all U.S. labor force growth between 2010 and 2016 and are becoming a prime driving force of the country’s economy.