What does the 2020 Census say about the US population?
The Census was recently published and includes some surprising information regarding the population. Here is a quick summary of the demographic changes.
For the first time in the history of the Census, the number of Americans who identified as white fell for the first time to below 60%. The Census was the first which could be completed through the internet, with the last Census taking place in 2010.
The numbers
- Overall population growth: 7.4% since 2010,
- US population number: 331 million
Has there been a demographic shift?
The growth of 7.4% is the lowest growth in population since the 1930s. What growth there has been generated by the non-white American population. The Hispanic population accounted for half of the total growth, reaching 62.1 million of all Americans. They now make up 18.7% of the total, a 6.1% increase since the 2000 Census. The Asian-American population grew by 35% to 24 million, the largest jump of all the data.
“The US population is much more multiracial and much more racially and ethnically diverse than we have measured in the past,” said Nicholas Jones, a Census Bureau official.
Most of the population growth happened in large, metropolitan areas. Small towns and villages tended to lose population, while cities grew at the fastest rate. The south and the west had the largest population growths while the midwest and north-east had the slowest growth.
Why are the changes significant?
This week begins the process of redrawing political voting boundaries based upon the Census data. Republicans control the process which does this, which will inevitably lead to accusations of gerrymandering once the final boundaries are released.