{UAH} THE BATTLE TO DECIMATE THE WHITE POPULATION STARTED IN 2000

August 25, 2019

Reflecting a demographic shift, 109 U.S. counties have become majority nonwhite since 2000

By Jens Manuel Krogstad

In the United States, the white share of the population is declining as Hispanic, Asian and black populations grow. But the shift to a more diverse nation is happening more quickly in some places than in others.

From 2000 to 2018, 109 counties in 22 states, from California to Kansas to North Carolina, went from majority white to majority nonwhite – that is, counties where non-Hispanic whites are no longer the majority, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data. (Our analysis includes only counties with a minimum population of 10,000 in 2018. These counties represent 77% of the nation’s 3,142 counties and include 99% of the U.S. population.)

Overall, 293 U.S. counties were majority nonwhite in 2018. Most of these counties are concentrated in California, the South and on the East Coast, with few in the country’s middle section. In addition, several majority white counties with large populations may flip in coming years. Fairfax County, Virginia (total of 1.2 million), Pima County, Arizona (1 million), Milwaukee County, Wisconsin (948,000) and Cobb County, Georgia (757,000) all had populations that were less than 52% white.

 

In 21 of the 25 biggest U.S. counties by population, nonwhite groups together make up more than half of residents. Eight of these counties were majority white in 2000 but are no longer: San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Sacramento (all in California), plus Clark (Nevada), Broward (Florida), Tarrant (Texas) and Wayne (Michigan). Hispanics were the largest nonwhite population in all of these eight counties except Wayne – which contains Detroit – where the black population was the largest nonwhite group. (In Broward County, Hispanic and black residents made up similar shares of the population at 30% and 28%, respectively.)

 

As the nation’s racial and ethnic diversity grows, whites remain the single largest racial or ethnic group in the U.S. when looking at the country as a whole, accounting for 60% of all Americans. The four largest U.S. counties that had majority white populations in 2018 were Maricopa (Arizona), King (Washington), Middlesex (Massachusetts) and Palm Beach (Florida).

 

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Another way to highlight the nation’s changing demographics is to look at how many counties shifted the opposite way. From 2000 to 2018, just two counties went from minority white to majority white: Calhoun County in South Carolina and West Feliciana Parish in Louisiana, each with relatively small populations of about 15,000.

 

Among the 109 counties that between 2000 and 2018 shifted from majority white to majority nonwhite, 26 were at least 60% white in 2000. Counties in Georgia stand out for having five of the 10 biggest percentage point swings in their white population share. (These 10 counties also had the largest percentage point drop among all U.S. counties on this measure.)

Gwinnett County, near Atlanta, was largest in overall population (928,000) among these top 10. Its population dropped from 67% white in 2000 to 36% in 2018. Rockdale, home to 91,000 and also near Atlanta, had the biggest percentage point swing of the top 10 counties on this measure, falling from 73% white to 30% during the same time period.

 

This trend stems from a flat or declining number of white Americans in each of these five Georgia counties (Henry, Douglas and Newton are the other three), combined with a large and growing black population and a smaller Hispanic population that is also increasing in number. (In recent decades, many black Americans have moved to the Atlanta area from Northern states as part of a return migration to the South.)

 

The future racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. has been a subject of debate, due in part to the growing number of Americans with varied backgrounds – and how these Americans identify themselves. The number of multiracial Americans is rising, for example, and in a recent Pew Research Center survey, about half of U.S. Hispanic adults identified their race as white.

 

Correction: The chart “Counties where nonwhite share of population is above 50% are mostly in Southwest” has been updated to correct the color of seven counties.

Note: This is an update to a post originally published April 8, 2015. 

For a closer look at counties that recently flipped, see the sortable table below:

U.S. counties where white share of population has dropped below 50% since 2000

State	County	Total population, 2000	Total population, 2018	% white, non-Hispanic, 2000	% white, non-Hispanic, 2018	Percentage point change, 2000-2018
AK	Kodiak Island	13,916	13,345	58%	49%	-9%
AL	Barbour	29,042	24,881	51%	46%	-5%
AL	Jefferson	662,041	659,300	57%	50%	-8%
AL	Russell	49,854	57,781	56%	46%	-10%
AR	Crittenden	50,855	48,342	51%	41%	-9%
CA	Contra Costa	948,865	1,150,215	59%	43%	-15%
CA	Orange	2,846,282	3,185,968	52%	40%	-12%
CA	Riverside	1,545,320	2,450,758	52%	35%	-17%
CA	Sacramento	1,223,578	1,540,975	59%	44%	-14%
CA	San Diego	2,813,839	3,343,364	56%	45%	-10%
CA	San Mateo	707,099	769,545	51%	39%	-12%
CA	Santa Barbara	399,293	446,527	57%	44%	-13%
CA	Stanislaus	446,850	549,815	58%	41%	-17%
CA	Sutter	78,947	96,807	61%	45%	-15%
CA	Ventura	753,230	850,967	57%	45%	-12%
CA	Yolo	168,660	220,408	59%	46%	-13%
CO	Adams	348,076	511,868	63%	50%	-13%
CO	Alamosa	14,965	16,683	55%	48%	-6%
FL	Broward	1,622,974	1,951,260	59%	36%	-23%
FL	Hardee	26,854	27,245	55%	47%	-8%
FL	Hillsborough	998,994	1,436,888	64%	48%	-15%
FL	Orange	896,123	1,380,645	58%	40%	-18%
FL	Osceola	172,520	367,990	60%	31%	-29%
GA	Chatham	232,372	289,195	54%	48%	-6%
GA	Crisp	22,020	22,601	54%	50%	-4%
GA	Decatur	28,252	26,575	56%	50%	-6%
GA	Douglas	92,315	145,331	76%	39%	-37%
GA	Gwinnett	588,133	927,781	67%	36%	-31%
GA	Henry	119,498	230,220	80%	42%	-38%
GA	Newton	61,906	109,541	74%	45%	-29%
GA	Rockdale	70,292	90,594	73%	30%	-43%
GA	Telfair	11,815	15,876	59%	49%	-10%
KS	Finney	40,517	36,611	52%	40%	-11%
KS	Ford	32,452	33,888	57%	39%	-18%
KS	Wyandotte	157,924	165,324	52%	41%	-11%
LA	Caddo	251,129	242,922	52%	45%	-8%
LA	Claiborne	16,850	15,944	52%	45%	-7%
LA	East Baton Rouge	412,899	440,956	55%	44%	-11%
LA	Morehouse	31,037	25,398	56%	49%	-7%
LA	St. John the Baptist	43,181	43,184	51%	34%	-17%
MA	Suffolk	691,047	807,252	53%	45%	-8%
MD	Charles	120,524	161,503	67%	39%	-29%
MD	Montgomery	873,874	1,052,567	60%	43%	-17%
MI	Wayne	2,061,180	1,753,893	51%	49%	-1%
MS	Chickasaw	19,447	17,171	56%	49%	-7%
MS	Leake	20,930	22,763	56%	47%	-9%
MS	Panola	34,283	34,178	50%	47%	-4%
MS	Pike	38,957	39,563	51%	43%	-8%
MS	Scott	28,455	28,287	55%	49%	-6%
MS	Warren	49,668	46,176	55%	47%	-8%
MS	Winston	20,157	18,165	55%	50%	-5%
NC	Cumberland	302,978	332,330	53%	43%	-10%
NC	Greene	18,957	21,012	50%	47%	-3%
NC	Guilford	420,848	533,670	63%	50%	-13%
NC	Lenoir	59,636	55,976	56%	49%	-6%
NC	Mecklenburg	695,348	1,093,901	61%	46%	-15%
NC	Nash	87,378	94,016	61%	49%	-12%
NC	Scotland	35,952	34,810	51%	43%	-8%
NC	Wilson	73,810	81,455	54%	47%	-7%
NE	Colfax	10,434	10,881	73%	48%	-25%
NE	Dakota	20,265	20,083	71%	48%	-23%
NJ	Cumberland	146,454	150,972	59%	46%	-13%
NJ	Mercer	350,773	369,811	65%	49%	-16%
NJ	Middlesex	750,275	829,685	63%	42%	-20%
NJ	Passaic	490,285	503,310	53%	41%	-12%
NJ	Union	522,507	558,067	55%	40%	-15%
NM	Chaves	61,373	64,689	52%	39%	-14%
NM	Colfax	14,191	12,110	50%	47%	-4%
NM	Curry	45,050	49,437	59%	47%	-12%
NM	Eddy	51,633	57,900	58%	46%	-12%
NM	Lea	55,528	69,611	54%	35%	-19%
NM	Otero	62,195	66,781	57%	48%	-8%
NM	Sandoval	90,546	145,179	51%	43%	-8%
NV	Clark	1,375,741	2,231,647	61%	42%	-19%
OK	Cherokee	42,475	48,675	55%	47%	-8%
OK	Texas	20,098	20,455	67%	44%	-23%
TX	Andrews	13,002	18,128	57%	40%	-17%
TX	Bell	238,000	355,642	58%	45%	-13%
TX	Brazoria	241,805	370,200	66%	46%	-19%
TX	Calhoun	20,645	21,561	52%	42%	-11%
TX	Ector	121,124	162,124	51%	32%	-20%
TX	Gonzales	18,601	20,826	51%	41%	-10%
TX	Guadalupe	88,856	163,694	60%	50%	-10%
TX	Hockley	22,719	22,980	58%	46%	-12%
TX	Howard	33,630	36,459	57%	48%	-9%
TX	Jefferson	251,968	255,001	52%	40%	-12%
TX	Lamb	14,713	13,158	51%	39%	-12%
TX	Matagorda	37,919	36,552	53%	44%	-9%
TX	Medina	39,318	50,921	51%	43%	-8%
TX	Midland	116,034	172,578	62%	45%	-17%
TX	Moore	20,123	21,485	50%	31%	-19%
TX	Potter	113,655	119,648	58%	43%	-14%
TX	Tarrant	1,449,290	2,084,931	62%	46%	-16%
TX	Terry	12,757	12,287	50%	39%	-12%
TX	Titus	28,118	33,033	60%	44%	-15%
TX	Travis	811,776	1,248,743	57%	49%	-8%
TX	Victoria	84,077	92,035	53%	44%	-9%
TX	Ward	10,909	11,720	52%	39%	-13%
TX	Wharton	41,191	41,619	53%	44%	-9%
VA	Prince William	281,317	468,011	65%	42%	-23%
VA	Danville city	48,312	40,693	53%	42%	-11%
VA	Hopewell city	22,278	22,596	61%	45%	-16%
VA	Manassas city	34,692	41,641	67%	40%	-27%
VA	Manassas Park city	10,226	17,307	68%	32%	-36%
VA	Martinsville city	15,418	12,902	54%	44%	-10%
VA	Newport News city	180,272	178,626	52%	43%	-10%
VA	Suffolk city	63,699	91,185	53%	49%	-4%
WA	Adams	16,426	19,759	51%	33%	-18%
WA	Yakima	222,578	251,446	57%	43%	-14%

Note: County list includes parishes (Louisiana) and a borough (Alaska).
Source: Pew Research Center analysis of 2000 decennial census and 2018 Census Bureau population estimates.

 

Jens Manuel Krogstad  is a senior writer/editor focusing on Hispanics, immigration and demographics at Pew Research Center

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