The BulleTin • Friday, augusT 13, 2021 A9
COVID-19
Census shows U.S. is diversifying,
States
that
had
a
white population is shrinking
grip now seeing
a crush of cases
BY MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press
The U.S. became more di-
verse and more urban over the
past decade, and the non-His-
panic white population
dropped for the first time on
record, the Census Bureau re-
ported Thursday as it released
a trove of demographic data
that will be used to redraw the
nation’s political maps.
The new figures offered the
most detailed portrait yet of
how the country has changed
since 2010, and they are sure
to set off an intense partisan
battle over representation at a
time of deep national division
and fights over voting rights.
The numbers could help de-
termine control of the House
in the 2022 elections and pro-
vide an electoral edge for years
to come. The data will also
shape how $1.5 trillion in an-
nual federal spending is dis-
tributed.
Americans continued to mi-
grate to the South and West
at the expense of the Midwest
and Northeast, the figures
showed. The share of the white
population fell from 63.7%
in 2010 to 57.8% in 2020,
the lowest on record, driven
by falling birthrates among
white women compared with
Hispanic and Asian women.
The number of non-Hispanic
white people shrank from 196
million in 2010 to 191 million.
White people continue to
be the most prevalent racial
or ethnic group, though that
changed in California, where
Hispanics became the largest
racial or ethnic group, grow-
ing from 37.6% to 39.4% over
the decade, while the share of
white people dropped from
40.1% to 34.7%. California, the
nation’s most populous state,
joined Hawaii, New Mexico
and the District of Columbia
as a place where non-Hispanic
white people are no longer the
dominant group.
“The U.S. population is
Brynn Anderson/AP
A building sits abandoned Thursday near Suches, Georgia. The Cen-
sus Bureau has issued its most detailed portrait yet of how the U.S.
has changed over the past decade.
much more multiracial and
much more racially and eth-
nically diverse than what we
have measured in the past,”
said Nicholas Jones, a Census
Bureau official.
Some demographers cau-
tioned that the white popu-
lation was not shrinking as
much as shifting to multiracial
identities. The number of peo-
ple who identified as belong-
ing to two or more races more
than tripled from 9 million
people in 2010 to 33.8 million
in 2020. They now account for
10% of the U.S. population.
People who identify as a
race other than white, Black,
Asian, American Indian, Na-
tive Hawaiian or Pacific Is-
lander — either alone or in
combination with one of those
races — jumped to 49.9 mil-
lion people, surpassing the
Black population of 46.9 mil-
lion people as the nation’s sec-
ond-largest racial group, ac-
cording to the Census Bureau.
But demographers said that
may have to do with Hispanic
uncertainty about how to an-
swer the race question on the
census form, as well as changes
the Census Bureau made in
processing responses and how
it asked about race and eth-
nicity.
Asians were the next most
populous racial group, reach-
ing 24 million people in 2020,
a jump of more than a third.
The Hispanic population
boomed over the decade,
growing by almost a quarter to
62.1 million residents in 2020
and accounting for almost half
of the overall U.S. population
growth, which was the slowest
since the Great Depression. By
comparison, the non-Hispanic
growth rate over the decade
was 4.3%.
The data “demonstrates
that the Latino community
is a huge and increasing part
of our nation’s future,” said
Thomas Saenz, president of
the Mexican American Le-
gal Defense and Educational
Fund.
Almost all of the growth of
the past 10 years happened
in metropolitan areas. About
80% of metropolitan areas saw
population gains as more peo-
ple in smaller counties moved
to larger, more urban counties.
The share of children in the
U.S. declined because of falling
birth rates, while the share of
adults grew, driven by aging
baby boomers. Adults over
age 18 made up more than
three-quarters of the popula-
tion in 2020, or 258.3 million
people, an increase of more
than 10% from 2010. How-
ever, the population of chil-
dren under age 18 dropped
from 74.2 million in 2010 to
73.1 million in 2020.
In addition, there is now
no majority racial or ethnic
group for people younger than
18, as the share of non-His-
panic whites in the age group
dropped from 53.5% to 47.3%
over the decade.
“If not for Hispanics, Asians,
people of two or more races,
those are the only groups un-
derage that are growing,” said
William Frey, a senior fellow
at Brookings’ Metropolitan
Policy Program. “A lot of these
young minorities are import-
ant for our future growth, not
only for the child population
but for our future labor force.”
The data comes from com-
piling forms filled out last year
by tens of millions of Ameri-
cans, with the help of census
takers and government stat-
isticians to fill in the blanks
when forms were not turned
in or questions were left unan-
swered. The numbers reflect
countless decisions made over
the past 10 years by individu-
als to have children, move to
another part of the country or
to come to the U.S. from else-
where.
It also provides the first op-
portunity to see, on a limited
basis, how well the Census Bu-
reau fulfilled its goal of count-
ing every U.S. resident during
what many consider the most
difficult once-a-decade census
in recent memory. Communi-
ties of color have been under-
counted in past censuses. The
agency likely will not know
how good a job it did until
next year, when it releases a
survey showing undercounts
and overcounts.
“The data we are releasing
today meet our high-quality
data standards,” acting Census
Bureau Director Ron Jarmin
said.
BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
AND ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
The COVID-19 surge that is
sending hospitalizations to all-
time highs in parts of the South
is also clobbering states like
Hawaii and Oregon that were
once seen as pandemic success
stories.
After months in which they
kept cases and hospitalizations
at manageable levels, they are
watching progress slip away
as record numbers of patients
overwhelm bone-tired health
care workers.
Oregon — like Florida, Ar-
kansas, Mississippi and Louisi-
ana in recent days — has more
people in the hospital with
COVID-19 than at any other
point in the pandemic. Hawaii
is about to reach that mark, too.
This, despite both states hav-
ing vaccination levels higher
than the national average as of
last week. Arkansas and Louisi-
ana were significantly below av-
erage, while Florida was about
even. Mississippi, meanwhile,
ranks at the very bottom for
vaccination rates.
“It’s heartbreaking. People
are exhausted. You can see it in
their eyes,” said Dr. Jason Kuhl,
chief medical officer at Oregon’s
Providence Medford Medical
Center, where patients are left
on gurneys in hallways, their
monitoring machines beeping
away. Others needing treatment
for cancer or heart disease are
being turned away.
In other developments, the
Food and Drug Administration
is expected to authorize a third
COVID-19 shot for certain
people with weakened immune
systems, such as cancer patients
and organ transplant recipients,
to give them an extra dose of
protection.
The U.S. is seeing the vi-
rus storming back, driven by
a combination of the highly
contagious delta variant and
lagging vaccination rates, es-
pecially in the South and other
rural and conservative parts of
the country.
New cases nationwide are av-
eraging about 123,000 per day, a
level last seen in early February,
and deaths are running at over
500 a day, turning the clock
back to May.
For the most part during
the pandemic, Hawaii enjoyed
one of the lowest infection and
death rates in the nation. In re-
cent days, though, it reported
record highs of more than 600
new virus cases daily.
On its worst day in 2020,
Hawaii had 291 patients hos-
pitalized with the coronavirus.
Officials expect to hit 300 by the
end of this week.
Despite the promising de-
mand for COVID-19 shots
early on, it took three weeks —
much longer than expected —
to get from 50% to 60% of the
vaccine-eligible population fully
vaccinated. Vaccinations have
since plateaued. Nationally, the
rate is about 59%.
The biggest hospital on Ha-
waii’s Big Island is feeling the
pressure. Out of 128 acute beds,
116 were taken Wednesday at
Hilo Medical Center, and the
hospital’s 11 intensive care unit
beds are almost always full
these days, spokeswoman Elena
Cabatu said.
“If someone out there has a
heart attack or a sepsis or gets
into a bad accident that requires
intensive care, we will have to
hold that person in the emer-
gency department,” Cabatu
said.
“I’m surprised we landed
here,” she lamented. “The hope
during the mass vax clinics was
just so high.”
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