Demographics of US - History

History

In 1900, when the U.S. population was 76 million, there were 66.8 million Whites in the United States, representing 88% of the total population, 8.8 million Blacks, with about 90% of them still living in Southern states, and slightly more than 500,000 Hispanics.

Under the current law, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the number of first-generation immigrants living in the United States has quadrupled, from 9.6 million in 1970 to about 38 million in 2007. During the 1950s, 250,000 legal immigrants entered the country annually; by the 1990s, the number was almost one million, and the vast majority of new immigrants have come from Latin America and Asia. In 2009, 37% of immigrants originated in Asia, 42% in the Americas, and 11% in Africa. Almost 97% of residents of the 10 largest American cities in 1900 were non-Hispanic whites. In 2006, non-Hispanic whites were the minority in thirty-five of the fifty largest cities. The Census Bureau reported that minorities accounted for 50.4% of the children born in the U.S. between July 2010 and July 2011, compared to 37% in 1990.(note: children born to white hispanics are counted as minority group)

In 2010 the state with the lowest fertility rate was Rhode Island, with 1,630.5 children per thousand women, while Utah had the greatest rate with 2,449.0 children per thousand women. This correlates with the ages of the states' populations: Rhode Island has the ninth-oldest median age in the US — 39.2 — while Utah has the youngest — 29.0.