April 14th, 2011
01:40 PM ET

New York, San Diego no longer have white majorities

New census data confirm that some major metropolitan areas flipped from majority white to majority populations of minorities during the past decade.

White people are now in the minority in 46 of the nation's 366 metro areas, including New York, Washington, San Diego, Las Vegas and Memphis, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution.

That number is up from 32 in 2000, 10 in 1990 and nine in 1980, Frey said.

The changes are a result of relatively slow growth among the white population, white people moving outside metropolitan areas, and huge increases in minority populations, especially Hispanic and Asian, he said.

Recent analysis also showed white children are in the minority in 10 states.

"[The 2010 Census figures] show we’re becoming a more diverse nation, especially in our metropolitan areas, and it's filtering out from there," Frey said.

The Census Bureau previously released the data for cities, counties and states, but data calculated for metropolitan areas and regions might give people a more accurate understanding of where they live, Frey said.

For example, while the population of the city of Atlanta grew by about 3,500, the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta metro area, as the Census Bureau calls it, grew by more than 1 million. The Houston and Dallas areas also had growth of more than 1 million, while the Phoenix and Riverside, California, areas both added more than 900,000.

See the fastest-growing metro areas.

"As we become much more of a suburban nation, the kind of glue that puts the community together is the idea of the metropolitan community," he said.

Looking at metro areas also can offer a deeper view of how people live in different areas. Frey has used statistics about metropolitan areas to calculate the most segregated areas in the country. In terms of white and black, the most segregated areas were around Milwaukee, New York, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

Read more of CNN's Defining America coverage

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soundoff (1,225 Responses)
  1. Ivan

    Wait a second, what is this? This means Greater Metropolitan Area right? Because otherwise whites have been minorities in most of these cities for decades. Also I'm sure the great majority of the minorities in San Diego are illegals who have been counted for no good reason.

    Also in the case of DC it's worth pointing out that the city-core is going to be majority white in ten years.

    April 15, 2011 at 8:13 pm | Report abuse |
  2. Reality

    Its a fact. Look at Africa, Look at Central America. Look at Mexico. –
    All corrupt, dangerous, poor, and lazy.

    The US is destined to be a giant cesspool and our own political society did the damage, getting rich through the process. They used us as lab rats to mix our society until few neighborhoods commonly even socialize with one another.

    Look at LA – thats what all American cities have to look forward to. Dirty, Corrupt, Dangerous, and Bankrupt.

    America is for sale people, on a daily basis.

    April 15, 2011 at 8:17 pm | Report abuse |
  3. Reality

    Seriously, just say THANK YOU for everything you have been given. Now, just continue to drive it all to hell......

    April 15, 2011 at 8:22 pm | Report abuse |
  4. green giant

    Why don't white people acknowledge that they invaded here first and destroyed native lands and the culture of the first people living here. its karma

    April 15, 2011 at 10:56 pm | Report abuse |
  5. Dessler

    So where do I apply for my affirmative action benefits, since as a white man I am now a minority?

    April 16, 2011 at 3:23 am | Report abuse |
  6. Eileen

    Seems like the illegal alien's who come here illegally only know how to do one thing, keep producing thats it. Sad day in our country when the Government won't stand up for all legal Americans....

    April 16, 2011 at 6:06 am | Report abuse |
  7. BillyBob

    The people crying here for minority status and scholarships should actually stop being ignorant and start reading some history. And no, I do not mean civil war history. America expanded after world war 2, and the wealth of the middle class grew and spilled over into the suburbs. But speaking only about the housing market, no one seems to realize that hardly any colored people were allowed to join the boom because they were not given mortgages. Call it economic racism or segregation. When people broadly generalize that minorities are the reason for the jails filling up it reiterates my belief that a majority of us are dumb. No one wants to have a bad credit, no one wants to live in a ghetto and we need to realize that have been and are stuck in a vicious cycle. Start reading and stop yapping America!

    April 16, 2011 at 9:51 am | Report abuse |
  8. BillyBob

    Typo in previous message. People have been and are stuck in a vicious cycle.

    April 16, 2011 at 10:01 am | Report abuse |
  9. Mariel

    This is awful! This high degree of hatred! It's all over the internet. The internet probably
    promotes race hatred just by offering access to people who hate other people. I'm white
    and I see no advantage in it. Lots of hispanics and asians are more intelligent and healthy
    than I am. Black people could do better, obviously–seem to refuse to use their initiative,
    but maybe that was bred out of them when they were slaves; it will take some generations,
    but we don't have generations. We are going down. The Bible was right, although I hate
    to admit that the Bible's prophecy of doom as the whole world attacks itself and nature
    also explodes at us, probably driven by a disgusted God. Gee, aren't there any of us good
    enough, God? That remnant You spoke of, from all nations?

    April 16, 2011 at 4:22 pm | Report abuse |
  10. Bill

    1) This only makes sense if you judge the category "white" against a meta-category of "everybody else". It doesn't say that hispanics are now a majority, it only paradoxically states that "minorities" are the new majority.

    2) If there is no ethnic majority then it doesn't make much sense to use the terms "majority" and "minority" then, does it? If we're all minorities there is no majority "other" to judge that group against.

    3) Yes, it is still indicative of a white sense of privilege that the rest of the world can be lumped into a category as "not white".

    April 16, 2011 at 6:33 pm | Report abuse |
  11. Iamrich

    D.Barbour, I hope you find another country, but the truth of the matter is, no country in the world is looking for your kind...except maybe libya?

    April 18, 2011 at 10:28 pm | Report abuse |
  12. Notgruntled

    A civilization is built around a common language, common cultural heritage and common racial stock; it cannot long endure the incursion of alien minorities who refuse to assimilate, cling to their old languages and ways, and form insular enclaves.

    In the greatest city in our Republic, there are quarters where you will scarcely hear English spoken. The Aliens have founded newspapers, hung signs, and you can hear their strange songs in foreign tongues from every window. Is this America? Is it worth sacrificing our cultural heritage for cheap sweatshop labor?

    I tell you, I see nothing but doom for the America we once knew when I look at the numbers of Irish and Italians reflected in the 1920 Census.

    April 22, 2011 at 3:31 pm | Report abuse |
  13. The Revolutionary

    They taught us to practice responsible birth giving. But then, the media decides to flood a few countries with old-fashioned 3rd worlders. It all sounds fishy to me. This will require a full-scale revolution. And, when that revolution comes, please remember that Mainstream Media is mostly responsible for the conspiracy.

    April 24, 2011 at 12:23 am | Report abuse |
  14. PulSe

    Answer: Make more babies.

    It's fun – it's retro – It's egocentric posterity fulfilling !

    It should be all the rage – now hop to it bunnies !

    May 1, 2011 at 2:43 pm | Report abuse |
  15. judith ripka handbags

    very nice publish, i actually love this website, carry on it

    September 12, 2011 at 9:20 pm | Report abuse |
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