| Majority-minority State |
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| demographics of the united states | |
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PROJECTIONS U.S. Census projections suggest that states will continue to shift into this category in the coming decades. As of 2004 , those next in line for minority majority status according to the U.S. Census Bureau (35% or more minority populations) were:
By contrast, more rural states such as North Dakota , South Dakota , Montana , Vermont , and New Hampshire are not projected to experience such a change for centuries, if ever. Of course, if the majority of the U.S. population becomes Hispanic (for example), then it is those more rural states which will become majority-minority states, as their white majority will be at odds with the non-white national norm. IMPACT OF DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFTS Such Demographic shifts in the majority population can have a profound, if unpredictable, political and social impact. For instance, a growing minority population in a state almost equally split between whites and non-whites can accelerate the process of becoming a minority-majority state faster than one might imagine, as the White majority may emigrate to other states or territories in large numbers as more people become uncomfortable with their inevitable "reverse minority" status. As a result, states with a minority population of roughly 35% or 40% are likely to become majority-minority in the near future due to this "Statewide White Flight ". On the other hand, immigrants may stimulate economic growth, thus attracting more white and non-white immigration. Furthermore, noticeably higher rates of birth and immigration among non-whites accelerates this process for certain states even more. In addition, non-hispanic white females are statistically the most likely to take part in Interracial marriage and/or bear mixed-race children. EXTERNAL FACTORS Demographic shifts may be influenced by factors other than normal patterns of population growth (births, deaths, urbanization, etc.) Following the U.S. Civil War , some former Confederate states such as Georgia and South Carolina had majority-black populations, but decades of social oppression drove large numbers of black people to northern states. External factors may influence the status of majority-minority states. For example, the success of the Christian Exodus movement, which supports the migration of conservative Christians to South Carolina , would likely reverse the trend of the growing black proportion of the overall population of that state. Hurricane Katrina , which scattered the mostly-black population of New Orleans to neighboring states, may also have had an effect this trend in several states. Also, other factors such as stricter enforcement of immigration laws would likely slow the move toward majority-minorities, as this would slow the flow of minority Illegal Immigrants , especially along the Border States such as Texas and California. This would have a great effect border states, where Hispanics from South and Central America , particularly from Mexico , are the predominant minority group, although it would have only a minor impact on states where the predominant minority groups are legal immigrants or are American-born. Florida, for example, has a large Cuba n population, encouraged by the federal government's Wet Feet/Dry Feet Policy , which allows Cuban Refugee s who make it to dry land to remain in the United States. New York and New Jersey have a significant population of Puerto Rican s, who are United States citizens by dint of their territorial status. Alaska and Hawaii each have large indigenous populations, deemed to have become citizens when those states entered the union. EXTERNAL LINKS
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