Study: White Residents Are No Longer The Majority In Middlesex County

In Middlesex County, white residents are no longer the majority of the population, according to a new study.

The county is one of 78 in the United States in which no single racial or ethnic group is a majority, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.

“In the United States as a whole, the white share of the population is declining as Hispanic, Asian and black populations grow,’’ the study said. “But the shift to a more diverse nation is happening more quickly in some places than in others.”

In Middlesex County, whites made up 62.3 percent of the population in 2000, but by 2013, that number had dropped to 46.4 percent, according to the study. During the same time frame, the total population of Middlesex County grew, from 752,880 to 828,919, the study said.

That 15.9 percentage point change was the 13th largest change in the nation. Three counties in Georgia had the biggest percentage point change. Rounding out the top 12 were other counties in Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Texas and Oklahoma. In New Jersey, white residents are also no longer the majority in Cumberland, Passaic, and Union counties.

“From 2000 to 2013, 78 counties in 19 states, from California to Kansas to North Carolina, flipped from majority white to counties where no single racial or ethnic group is a majority, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data.”

The study focused on counties with a total population of at least 10,000. In 1960, 85 percent of the nation’s residents were white, but by 2060, the U.S. population is expected to be 43 percent white, according to the center.

“Even though the white share of the U.S. population is falling, non-Hispanic whites remain the nation’s largest racial or ethnic group, accounting for 63 percent of all Americans. And whites are at least half of the population in 89 percent of the nation’s counties with at least 10,000 residents,’’ the study said.

Map: Pew Research Center