ICYMI: Study: White Residents No Longer Majority in Union County

MICHELLE SAHN (Patch Staff) contributed to this report

In Union County, white residents are no longer the majority of the population, according to a new study.

Union County is one of 78 counties across the United States in which no single racial or ethnic group is a majority, according to a recent study from the Pew Research Center.

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

In 2000, whites in Union County accounted for 54.7 percent of the population, but that number decreased to 43.2 percent by 2013, the study reports. During that time period, the county’s population has increased from 523,124 to 548,256, the study said.

The county’s 11.5 percent change was the 29th largest in the country. Union County had the second largest decrease in the state, trailing only Middlesex County at 15.9 percent. In New Jersey, white residents are also no longer the majority in Cumberland and Passaic counties.

According to the study, “From 2000 to 2013, 78 counties in 19 states, from California to Kansas to North Carolina, flipped from majority white to counties where no single racial or ethnic group is a majority, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.”

The study focused only on counties with a minimum population of 10,000. In 1960, 85 percent of the nation’s residents were white, but by 2060, the U.S. population is expected to be 43 percent white, according to the center.

“Even though the white share of the U.S. population is falling, non-Hispanic whites remain the nation’s largest racial or ethnic group, accounting for 63 percent of all Americans. And whites are at least half of the population in 89 percent of the nation’s counties with at least 10,000 residents,’’ the study said.

Map: Pew Research Center