America’s Increasing Diversity
Percent Distribution of U.S. Population, 1995-2050
By 2040, half of the people whom the United States today calls minorities will be in the majority. By 2010, Asian 4% 1995 whites will account for only about 9% of the world’s American Indian 1% population, compared with 17% in 1997, according to Black 13% demographer Harold Hodgkinson; whites will then be the world’s smallest minority. By 2025, the non-Hispanic Hispanic White 9% white population in the United States will be down to Non-Hispanic White 74% 60%. Between now and 2050, minorities will account for nearly 90% of the total growth in the U.S. population. According to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Brookings Institution, in the 20 fastest-growing Asian 9% 2050 cities, whites grew by 5%, blacks by 23%, Asians by American Indian 1% 69%, and Hispanics by 72%. It is no longer the case that minorities are assimilating into a culture dominated by Black 15% whites. Instead, the white Western majority must learn how to assimilate to a new cultural identity that is Hispanic White 22% more multicultural in values in everything from music and language to culture and commerce. Within the United States, the number of foreign-born Non-Hispanic White 53% residents reached an all-time high of 32.5 million in 2002—equal to 11.5% of the U.S. population. About half As a result of faster growth of minority groups, of the 2002 foreign-born residents arrived in 1990 or race and ethnic distribution will become more later, and more than 50% of the 2002 residents were diversified as the United States progresses born in Latin America—with 30% from Mexico alone. through the twenty-first century. Twenty-six percent were born in Asia, 14% in Europe, Source: U.S. Department of Commerce. and 8% in Africa and other regions. Immigration has also made the black population in the United States more heterogeneous than ever. Between 1970 and 2000, the share of foreign-born people in the black populaIncrease in U.S. Population, 1995-2050 tion rose from 1.3% to 7.8%. There are some 8 million African immigrants in the United States, and by 2010 as many as 10% of Total 50% Americans of African descent will be immigrants from Africa or the Caribbean. All Minorities As a result of these and other dramatic 169% changes in world demographics, those thriNon-Minority vals studying for an MBA, for example, (Non-Hispanic will be seen as potential sources of wealth, White) 7% management, and influence. It can no longer be assumed that only white males Black 83% will lead the world’s largest multinational corporations in 2025. With each passing decade and rapid development and disperAll racial and ethnic groups will grow in population; the nonsal of new technologies, it becomes virtuHispanic white population will have the least increase in ally certain that corporations of the future growth. will be founded and directed by nonwhite males and by women. Source: U.S. Department of Commerce. —Nat Irvin II
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Reprinted from THE FUTURIST March-April 2004 • www.wfs.org