Demographics
The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Mississippi was 2,978,512 on July 1, 2011, a 0.38% increase since the 2010 United States Census. From 2000 to 2012, the United States Census Bureau reported that Mississippi had the highest rate of increase of mixed-race population, up 70 percent in the decade.
The total population has not increased significantly, but is young, and some of the change is due to new births. It appears to reflect mostly residents who have chosen to identify as more than one race, who in earlier years may have identified as only one ethnicity, a carryover from days of racial segregation imposed by whites. As the demographer William Frey noted, “In Mississippi, I think it’s changed from within.” Historically in Mississippi after Indian removal, the major groups were black (African American, many of whom have had European ancestry) and white (primarily European American). Matthew Snipp, also a demographer, commented on the changes: "In a sense, they’re rendering a more accurate portrait of their racial heritage that in the past would have been suppressed."
African Americans comprise approximately 37 percent of the population, with some having ancestors who were transported in the nineteenth century to work on developing the area's plantations. Mississippi was part of the Black Belt, and had a majority-black population from the antebellum years until the 1930s, after which in the Great Migration, nearly 400,000 African Americans left the state for opportunities in the North, Midwest and West.
The center of population of Mississippi is located in Leake County, in the town of Lena. According to the 2010 census, approximately 33% of Mississippi's same-sex couple households included at least one child, a higher percentage than that of any other state.
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