A report from the U.S. Census Bureau found that the nation is diversifying and the white population had decreased for the first time on record.
The population share of whites dropped from 63.7% in 2010 to 57.8% in 2020.
Previously in 2000, whites comprised 69.1% of the country.
Hispanics showed a large gain in population share, from 12.5% in 2000, to 16.3% in 2010, to 18.7% in 2020.
The population share of blacks stayed about the same, with 12.1% in 2000, 12.2% in 2010, and 12.1% in 2020.
The Asian population share grew as well, while American Indians & Alaska Natives stayed about the same.
California was one of the few states where whites were overtaken in population share by another group. Whites comprised 34.7% of the population in 2020 while Hispanics comprised 39.4% of the population. Previously, whites had comprised 40.1% of the state’s population in 2010, while Hispanics had comprised 37.6%.
Hawaii, New Mexico and the District of Columbia were other places where whites were not dominant by population.
The report also showed that Americans were moving to the South and the West from the Midwest and Northeast. Among the states that grew enough to merit more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives were Texas with 2 more seats, and Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Oregon and Montana with one more seat.
The seven states that lost one seat in the new census count were California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, and West Virginia.
The change in congressional redistricting means that Republicans will be able to flip control of the House by only picking up 5 seats.
“We’re at a point here, control of the House is so close, how the maps are drawn in any one of these big states could make all the difference,” said Steve Kornacki on MSNBC.
