Great news for you, Cwalker...

[J @ M @ L]

WASHINGTON - America's growing diversity has reached nearly every state. From South Carolina's budding immigrant population to the fast-rising number of Hispanics in Arkansas, minority groups make up an increasing share of the population in every state but one, according to figures released Tuesday by the        Census Bureau.

"This is just an extraordinary explosion of diversity all across the United States," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "It's diversity and immigration going hand in hand."

West Virginia is the exception, with its struggling economy and little history of attracting immigrants.

Frey said states that attract large numbers of immigrants can consider it a "badge of economic success." There have, however, been backlashes.

"In some places it will be awhile before they are accepted by the locals," Frey said. "All we have to do is look at this immigration debate."

Immigration policy is a big issue in this year's midterm congressional elections, and the new data help explain why. Immigrants — legal and illegal — make up a growing portion of the population in 46 states and the District of Columbia. Nationally, they went from 11.1 percent of the population in 2000 to 12.4 percent last year.

The 2005 figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which is replacing the "long form" on the 10-year census. Starting this year, the annual survey of about 3 million households provides yearly data on communities of 65,000 or larger. By 2010, it will provide annual multiyear averages for the smallest neighborhoods covered by the 10-year census.

The data released Tuesday cover, race, immigration, education and age characteristics. Economic and housing data will be released in the coming weeks.

The survey, which cost $170 million in 2005, has limitations. For example, only people living in households were surveyed. That excludes the 3 percent of people who live in nursing homes, hospitals, college dormitories, military barracks, prisons and other dwellings known as group quarters.

Also, the numbers for Gulf Coast states do not reflect the effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which scattered hundreds of thousands of people last year.

Among the findings:

_Education levels increased in every state from 2000 to 2005. Nationally, the share of adults 25 and older with at least a high school diploma increased from 80 percent to 84 percent. The share of adults with at least a bachelor's degree increased from 24 percent to 27 percent.

_Every state is getting older. Nationally, the median age — the one at which half the population is older and half is younger — went from 35.3 in 2000 to 36.4 last year.

_Hispanics increased their hold as the country's largest minority group, at 14.5 percent of the population, compared with 12.8 percent for blacks.

Hispanic is a term for people with ethnic backgrounds in Spanish- speaking countries. Hispanics can be of any race, and most in the U.S. are white. When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic.

_Such whites are a minority in four states — Hawaii, New Mexico, California and Texas — and the District of Columbia. The share of white people fell below 60 percent in three other states — Maryland, Georgia and Nevada. Nationally, non-Hispanic whites make up about 67 percent of the population, down from 70 percent at the start of the decade.

California, New York, Texas and Florida have the nation's largest immigrant populations. The new data show that immigrants will travel beyond those states if there are jobs available.

South Carolina's immigrant population grew by 47 percent since 2000, more than any other state. Hispanics grew by 48 percent in Arkansas, the most of any state.

Michael MacFarlane, South Carolina's state demographer, said immigrants and Hispanics were attracted by a healthy economy that offered jobs requiring few skills.

"They are in all sorts of construction, food processing, service jobs, the whole spectrum, where they used to be primarily in agriculture," MacFarlane said.

West Virginia, meanwhile, was one of only two states in which the percentage of white people grew. The other was Hawaii, where whites are an increasing minority.

[Logic]

CWalker187 move to West Virgina and have a family reunion gggg-unit.

[J Bananas]

good thing i got a family lake house in maine, if things get too "diverse" out here I'm hittin the new england backwoods with a pound of cheeba and my king of the hill dvd collection

[Real American]

Very disturbing news......

[Machiavelli]

Hispanic is a term for people with ethnic backgrounds in Spanish- speaking countries. Hispanics can be of any race, and most in the U.S. are white. When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic.

 yeah...most americans just assume hispanics are not white when actully most of them are...

[Real American]

Hispanic is a term for people with ethnic backgrounds in Spanish- speaking countries. Hispanics can be of any race, and most in the U.S. are white. When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic.

 yeah...most americans just assume hispanics are not white when actully most of them are...

Most Hispanics are not white though. Most of them are mixed or mestizo, but they get classified as white probably so white people don't get worried about massive immigration.

[Machiavelli]

Hispanic is a term for people with ethnic backgrounds in Spanish- speaking countries. Hispanics can be of any race, and most in the U.S. are white. When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic.

 yeah...most americans just assume hispanics are not white when actully most of them are...

Most Hispanics are not white though. Most of them are mixed or mestizo, but they get classified as white probably so white people don't get worried about massive immigration.

They are classified as white because hispanics came from spain

[J @ M @ L]

Very disturbing news......

Divesity, terrorism, black guys fucking your sister, etc... you should just go kill yourself.

[M Dogg™]

Hispanic is a term for people with ethnic backgrounds in Spanish- speaking countries. Hispanics can be of any race, and most in the U.S. are white. When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic.

 yeah...most americans just assume hispanics are not white when actully most of them are...

Most Hispanics are not white though. Most of them are mixed or mestizo, but they get classified as white probably so white people don't get worried about massive immigration.

They are classified as white because hispanics came from spain

even brown Hispanics are classified as white because there is no other way to label us, unless you stripe white people of the title Americans. The same way a Chinese man and a Japanese man are Asian, and the same way black people and African immigrants are African, is the same way brown people from Mexico and Puerto Rico are Americans. We are sort of American-American so to speak. I can live with Latin American too, which means my blood comes from Latin America as oppose to the United States of America. Though with my Native blood, it's unfair to my grandma, but calling brown people Americans without something in front to seperate them from being white American is bad. So instead of letting us be American, white people would just rather call us white. It's weird really. We can be white, so long as we are not straight American.

[J Bananas]

Hispanic is a term for people with ethnic backgrounds in Spanish- speaking countries. Hispanics can be of any race, and most in the U.S. are white. When demographers talk about the shrinking percentage of white people in America, generally they are talking about whites who are not Hispanic.

 yeah...most americans just assume hispanics are not white when actully most of them are...

Most Hispanics are not white though. Most of them are mixed or mestizo, but they get classified as white probably so white people don't get worried about massive immigration.

They are classified as white because hispanics came from spain

even brown Hispanics are classified as white because there is no other way to label us, unless you stripe white people of the title Americans. The same way a Chinese man and a Japanese man are Asian, and the same way black people and African immigrants are African, is the same way brown people from Mexico and Puerto Rico are Americans. We are sort of American-American so to speak. I can live with Latin American too, which means my blood comes from Latin America as oppose to the United States of America. Though with my Native blood, it's unfair to my grandma, but calling brown people Americans without something in front to seperate them from being white American is bad. So instead of letting us be American, white people would just rather call us white. It's weird really. We can be white, so long as we are not straight American.

kind of a broad statement homey, im white as the driven snow and i consider hispanics brown, not white, unless they are actually from spain. or white cuban. and the reason latinos or whatever you prefer to be called arent considered American is because of the huge cultural difference between north American and everything south.

[Javier]

A white cuban? 


Pretty much all the latinos in the U.S have Spaniard blood and some sort of native american blood. 

[J Bananas]

A white cuban? 


Pretty much all the latinos in the U.S have Spaniard blood and some sort of native american blood. 

yeah u know, like al pacino from scarface!

[Javier]

You're missing few countries that fit that description.  Take Argentina as one of the biggest examples, they are all latinos but most of them have 100% European blood.  Mexico has about 1/6th that have all european blood, and they are mostly found in states like Sinaloa, Jalisco, and Zacatecas and other middle to north states. 

[M Dogg™]

You're missing few countries that fit that description.  Take Argentina as one of the biggest examples, they are all latinos but most of them have 100% European blood.  Mexico has about 1/6th that have all european blood, and they are mostly found in states like Sinaloa, Jalisco, and Zacatecas and other middle to north states. 

damn Argentina, lol

My dad is from the old school, and he hates Argentinans as much as he hates white people, and my gf, when she visit my family in Cali, could tell how much my family hates Argentinans.

[Javier]

lol their accent makes them sound arrogant, although I have a few friends that are pretty arrogant and think that being Argentina is a gift from God