Births have overtaken immigration as the driving force behind the growth of the Mexican-American population in the United States in the past decade, according to a report released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center.

The same can be said for the entire Hispanic population of the United States, which grew from 35.3 million in 2000 to 50.5 million in 2010, accounting for 16.3% of the U.S. population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. About 58% of that growth resulted from births rather than the arrival of new immigrants, the report says.

The trend is most evident among Mexican-Americans, whose numbers grew by 7.2 million as a result of births and 4.2 million from new immigrant arrivals in the past decade, reversing trends from the previous two decades, when the number of new immigrants matched or exceeded the number of births, the report says.

Mexican-Americans are the nation's largest Hispanic group,  at around 31.8 million, or 63% of the U.S. Hispanic population and 10% of the total U.S. population.

In the Pew report, the term Mexican-American applies to people of Mexican origin, regardless of immigration status. The study noted that in 2010, 52% of people of Mexican origin were in the U.S. illegally, and that 68% of births to undocumented aliens were to Mexican nationals.

What's behind the change?

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New 2010 Census data released Thursday provides a detailed breakdown of age, gender and race, in 13 states along various geographic lines, including zip code and county levels.

The first data release from the "Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010" includes information for the District of Columbia, Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Median ages in this group range from 33.8 in DC to 42.7 in Maine. The bureau is releasing the information in groups of states on a weekly basis in May. National data will be released at the end of the month. Data for individual states can be found on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder.

The new figures break down male and female populations into age groups and identifies households by relationship and type. The data set also includes the size of group quarters and housing occupancy status, such as rentals, homes for sale and seasonal units.

The numbers illustrate trends previously reported on the local level, such as the growing Hispanic population, outmigration from the northeast to the southeast and flips in major cities from majority white to minority white populations, said Kenneth Prewitt, former Census Bureau director and vice president for Global Centers at Columbia University. But the decennial census results bring together those small pieces of the puzzle to create a picture of what the country looks like as a whole and where it's headed, he said.

"Anyone who closely follows what's going on in demography will not learn much new from these numbers, but there's something about the decennial Census that attracts attention because it's a highly visible moment where the country pauses and takes a look at itself," he said.

The data also takes a closer look at the origins of people who identified on the decennial census as Hispanic or Latino - Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban or other - Asian - Asian Indian, Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese - Native Hawaiian - Guamanian or Chamorro or Samoa - or multiracial.

New York University sociology professor Ann Morning, who specializes in race and ethnicity and racial classification, said aggregate breakdowns of the number of people who identified as multiracial and their ages could be useful for making projections regarding the country's racial makeup.

"We're not seeing these shifts for the first time - the question of whether this nation is becoming less white, that's been happening since 1950s. But are we becoming more multiracial?" she said. "It will be interested to see how age breakdowns of different mixed groups look compared to 2000 data."

White children are now in the minority among people under 18 in 10 U.S. states and 35 large metro areas, according to a Brookings analysis of 2010 Census data.

The number of white children in metro areas including Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; Orlando, Florida; and Phoenix, Arizona, fell below that of other children in the last decade as the population of white children nationwide declined by 4.3 million, the report said.

The decline occurred as the number of children identified as "new minorities" - Hispanics, Asians and other racial groups apart from whites, blacks and American Indians - grew by 5.5 million, the report said.

Hispanics registered an increase of 4.8 million, which kept the nation's overall child population from declining, the report said. The findings reflect changes in the racial makeup of the overall U.S. population with Hispanics becoming the nation's largest and fastest growing minority group.

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Check out CNN.com's complete coverage of the 2010 U.S. Census

There are some conferences you look forward to for the opportunity to absorb the latest trends in your field, share your own findings and immerse yourself in spirited discussion with like-minded colleagues.

For thousands of demographers, sociologists, economists and public health professionals, the annual meeting of the Population Association of America this week in Washington was that kind of event.

The conference brought together academics and professionals in population research and education to share information on topics you'd expect to be of interest to that group: fertility, sexual behavior, race, ethnicity, mortality, race, ethnicity, gender, urbanization, inequality, development and applied demography, to name a few.

The conference comes during a banner year for such experts, whose expertise is in high demand from scholars, analysts and reporters, for help deciphering 2010 census data. Several sessions hit upon prominent themes to come out of the 2010 analysis so far, among them, "Immigrant Integration and Assimilation," "The Context of Cohabiting Unions" and "Baby Boomers Turn 65."

U.S. Hispanic population hits milestone

"The conference is going well - record attendance, interesting sessions and special events," Mary Jo Hoeksema, PAA's director of government and public affairs, said in an enthusiastic e-mail from the conference Saturday. "Congresswoman [Carolyn] Maloney addressed the conferees last night and pledged her support for federal statistical agencies and the importance of collecting accurate data! Our president, Dr. David Lam, gave his address analyzing myths and realities surrounding the post-war world population boom."

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