Tuesday, 12 July 2011

US to be Latino and Afro American Majority State by 2040

According to a report by PolicyLink, (a national research and an action institute) non-Whites will be the majority in America by the year 2040. Dr. Mark Mather of Population Reference Bureau states that the birthrates of white Americans is1.9 per woman and those of Hispanic Americans is 2.7.per woman. He also explains that one of the major reasons for this difference is a phenomenon called "Population Momentum." Since America welcomes immigrants f rom all over the world, most of the immigrants coming to USA from developing countries happen to be of reproductive age. They bring with them a birth-rate higher than the native White population which is of diverse age group. He stated that it is this population momentum which has given United States a healthier over all national birth-rate compared to many European countries that are experiencing dangerously low fertility rates
This report takes a look at the changes happening in the US population owing to immigration and a comparative aging of the white population. Professor William Frey who is an expert on US population says that based on the US census of 2010 white Americans, although still a majority, will soon be a minority in the US population. He names an aging of the whites as well as a lower fertility of white women compared to most other groups as the main reasons for a decline in the numbers of whites from seventy to sixty five percent of the total population. Professor Frey also elaborates on how the US population benefited from immigration over the last decade by, for example, only Hispanics contributing more than half of all the growth. He says that, although, little slower than that in the previous decades, the growth of US population was still healthy. Because of comparatively cheaper living and better employment opportunities States of the South East and West of the US showed the most gain in numbers. DR Frey agrees that lower skill and education levels of the majority of the Hispanic immigrants will pose a challenge but that this challenge can be transformed into an opportunity for the future of US by providing equal opportunities in particular to those young immigrants whose parents are less educated.

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