When it comes to babies, minority is the new majority.
For the first time in U.S. history, minority children under the age of one outnumber white babies, according to newly released estimates from the Census Bureau.
As of July 1, 2011, 50.4 percent of American newborns were minorities, up from 49.5 percent during the 2010 census. The bureau defines a minority as anyone who is "not a single-race white and not Hispanic."
It doesn't appear that the Census offers online data on the ethnicities of newborns on a city or county basis in 2011.
In 2010, Santa Monica's population grew by 6.7 percent, but was still largely comprised of white residents. At the last 10-year Census count, 77.6 percent of the city's 89,736 residents were white. The rest of the population was mostly Hispanic or Latino (13.1 percent), Asian (9 percent) or black (3.9 percent).
Altogether, there were 114 million minorities in America in 2011, or 36.6 percent of the population. In 2010, it was 36.1 percent.
The bureau considers a minority population greater than 50 percent a “majority-minority."
The top five states with majority minorities in 2011 were
- Hawaii (77.1 percent minority)
- The District of Columbia (64.7 percent)
- California (60.3 percent)
- New Mexico (59.8 percent)
- Texas (55.2 percent)
No other state had a minority population greater than 46.4 percent.
Maverick, Texas, had the largest minority population with 96.8 percent, followed by Webb, Texas (96.4 percent) and Wade Hampton Census Area, Alaska (96.2 percent).
To read the full Census press release, click here.
— Patch editor Jenna Chandler contributed to this report.
