Can You Picture America’s Demographic Future?

PolicyLink recently released a time-lapse map showing where people of color will become a majority in the U.S. over the next 30 years.

By Asraa Mustufa May 27, 2011

We’ve reported on the country’s changing demographics before. PolicyLink recently released a time-lapse map showing where people of color will become a majority in the U.S. over the next 30 years.

By 2042, people of color will constitute the majority of our population. California, Texas, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Washington DC already have more people of color than whites. You can check out what counties and states will become majority non-white by decade, based on PolicyLink’s projections. While these changes are expected to occur across the country, the map shows major concentrations of people of color projected for southern states.

Last month, Think Progress released a map showing racial demographics by county today. They also featured some neat infographics highlighting major changes over the last decade based on Census data.

PolicyLink is a research institute dedicated to advancing economic and social equity. Their CEO and founder Angela Glover Blackwell said that the projections prove that the nation’s success depends on the success of people of color, and that equitable policies are increasingly becoming an economic imperative as well as a moral one.

"Many in the still-majority white population and political establishment don’t see themselves reflected in the faces of America’s children. They are talking far more about slashing Medicaid and education funding than investing in the dreams and needs of our children," she said. "As a nation, we can see our future and it is captured in the hopes and dreams of a 5-year-old Latina girl and a 7-year-old African American boy. Our success depends on theirs."