Some new figures released by the Census Bureau yesterdayin advance of the full 2010 Census, due out by December of this yearsuggest that the under-18 populations of states like New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have shrunk significantly over the last decade, while in California and six other states, black, Asian and Hispanic children now constitute a majority of the under-18 population, with white kids under 18 in the minority for the first time. The change in demographics is attributed both to migration and immigration into western states like California, Texas, and Arizona, and higher birthrates in non-white families in these states.
Paraphrasing demographers, the NYT suggests that "changes in the voting-age population, coupled with disparities in where people are aging faster, may portend a divide between an older, whiter electorate and a younger total population that is more Hispanic, black and Asian and has a different political agenda."
