The census defines “minority” as anyone who does not identify themselves as white (as a single race) and non-Hispanic. The total minority population grew half a percentage point between 2010 and 2011 to 36.6%, or 114 million people.
For the first time in the decade, the population of children younger than 1 is primarily non-white or Hispanic: 50.4% of the total population in that age category.
Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders had the highest percentage of children younger than 18 in 2011, at 33.9%. Hispanics were a close second, with 33.5% of the population under 18. In third were American Indians/Alaska natives, a group whose children make up 31.6% of its population. Next were blacks, with 29.6%; Asians, with 25.9%; and non-Hispanic whites, at 19.9%.
Across the United States, 23.7% of the total population is under 18.
Florida, popular with the retired set, was the state with the highest proportion of people older than 65: 17.6% of its population. Alaska was the state with the lowest proportion of seniors, at 8.1% of the population.
Asians remain the fastest-growing minority racial group, with a 3% increase over last year’s population, to 18.2 million. But the fastest-growing ethnic group overall was Hispanics (who can be of any race), expanding by 3.1% since 2010.
California had the largest number of single-race, non-Hispanic whites (15 million). It also had the largest populations of Hispanics (14.4 million), Asians (5.8 million) and American Indians/Alaska natives (1.05 million).
Hawaii was the state with the largest number of native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, with 359,000, and it was the only state in which Asians formed the majority (57.1%) of the population. New York state had the highest number of people identifying as black or African-American, at 3.7 million.
