U.S. 2050: Hispanics will Triple...
Census Bureau sees non-Hispanic
white population at 50 percent

WASHINGTON (MSNBC) March 17, 2004 -- The U.S. Census Bureau is predicting that the nation's Hispanic population will triple by 2050 while the population of non-Hispanic whites increases by just 7 percent. As a result, the non-Hispanic white population will drop to half of the total from a current level of close to 70 percent, the report said.

Projections for 2050 include these:

• The Hispanic population rises from 39 million to 103 million, a 188 percent increase. Their share of the nation's population nearly doubles, from 12.6 percent to 24.4 percent.
• The black population rises from 36 million to 61 million in 2050, a 71 percent increase. That would raise their share of the country's population from 12.7 percent to 14.6 percent.
• The non-Hispanic, white population rises from 196 million to 210 million, a 7 percent increase. This group is projected to actually lose population in the 2040s and would comprise just 50.1 percent of the total population in 2050, compared with 69.4 percent in 2000.
• The overall population becomes older. "Childbearing rates are expected to remain low while baby-boomers -- people born between 1946 and 1964 -- begin to turn 65 in 2011," the Bureau noted. "By 2030, about 1-in-5 people would be 65 or over." The female population continues to outnumber the male population by a slight margin. The Bureau said its projections are based on Census 2000 results and assumptions about future childbearing, mortality and international migration.

It noted that the projected 49 percent population increase by 2050 "would be in sharp contrast to most European countries, whose populations are expected to decline by mid-century."