Recently Released Summary Census Data Highlights the United States’ Increasing Diversity
Recently released Census data confirms that California and the United States are rapidly becoming more diverse. The legacy format summary redistricting data released on August 12th by the U.S. Census Bureau demonstrates significant growth in racial and ethnic diversity across the United States, as well as overall population growth in cities and metropolitan areas. Several California metropolitan regions, including Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose, are now in the top 10 most populated metropolitan areas in the country, with Los Angeles remaining the most populated county in the U.S.
The Census data also revealed significant shifts in the racial and ethnic demographics of the U.S. While the White population remained the largest racial and ethnic demographic overall, it is the only demographic to decrease in population since the 2010 Census, decreasing by 8.6 percent. All other racial and ethnic groups experienced growth in population, with the largest increases seen in those who identified as Two or More Races, Some Other Race alone, or Asian alone. The Latino population also grew significantly from 50.5 million in 2010 to 62.1 million in 2020, and now make up 1 out of every 5 of U.S. residents. In California, Latinos now make up nearly 40 percent of the population, while Latino youth make up the majority of California’s youth at more than 51 percent. Despite overall population growth seen in the data, there are still concerns that populations were undercounted in the 2020 Census due to conflicting messaging leading up to the survey. The Census findings should and will play a large role in shaping the policy and decision-making of the next decade. Due to apportionment post Census, seven Congressional seats shifted among 13 states, with California losing one Congressional seat.
More user-friendly tabulated data will be released by the U.S. Census Bureau by September 30th, at which point further analyses of Census data will be possible for the general public. Find more information about the 2020 Census data here.