Posted on July 29, 2011

Slower Racial Change Found in Census of City

Sam Roberts, New York Times, July 28, 2011

New York City edged a baby step closer to racial equilibrium in the last decade, according to census results released this month. Compared with the 1990s, the numbers of Hispanic and Asian New Yorkers grew more slowly; blacks recorded their first population loss since the Civil War; and non-Hispanic whites, who registered their smallest population loss in decades, also logged the biggest gains of any group among young children.

As a result, according to the 2010 census, the city was 33 percent non-Hispanic white, 29 percent Hispanic, 23 percent black and 13 percent Asian. In 2000, the city’s makeup was 35 percent non-Hispanic white, 27 percent Hispanic, 25 percent black and 10 percent Asian.

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“It’s clear that New York continues to draw white young adults and increasingly those with children to its gentrifying neighborhoods,” said William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution. “These white gains among the city’s younger ranks along with its continued draw of immigrant minorities suggests that New York’s long-term race-ethnic balance will not change appreciably.

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