Most Americans Say the Declining Share of White People in the U.S. Is Neither Good nor Bad

A majority of U.S. adults say the decreasing share of Americans who identify their race as White is neither good nor bad for society, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

About six-in-ten adults (61%) say the declining proportion of Americans who identify as White – a trend documented this month in new data from the Census Bureau about Americans who identify as solely White and not Hispanic – is neither good nor bad for society. About two-in-ten (22%) say it is bad, including 9% who say it is very bad. Slightly fewer (15%) say it is good for society, including 7% who say it is very good, according to the survey of 10,221 adults, conducted July 8-18, 2021.

Majorities across demographic and political groups have neutral views about the changing racial makeup of the U.S. population. But there are substantial differences in the shares who have a positive or negative opinion about the declining proportion of White people in the country.

Differences by age are especially pronounced. Among those ages 18 to 29, around three-in-ten (29%) say the fact that White people are declining as a share of the U.S. population is good for society, compared with 13% who say it is bad. By contrast, 32% of Americans ages 65 and older say this demographic shift is bad for society and only 6% say it is good.

Views also differ sharply by partisanship and ideology, even as nearly identical majorities of Republicans and Democrats (61% vs. 62%) say it is neither good nor bad for society that White people are declining as a share of the population.

About a third of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents (34%) say the decline of the White share of the population is bad for society, including 38% of conservative Republicans and 26% of moderate and liberal Republicans. Few Republicans (5%) say it is good for society.

By contrast, around a quarter of Democrats and Democratic leaners (24%) say this demographic shift is a good thing. However, liberal Democrats are more likely than conservative and moderate Democrats (32% vs. 17%) to say the declining share of White people is good for society, while conservative and moderate Democrats are more likely than their liberal counterparts (18% vs. 7%) to say this shift is bad.

Across racial and ethnic groups, majorities of Americans say it is neither good nor bad that White people are a declining share of the U.S. population, though White adults (26%) are somewhat more likely than Black (21%), Hispanic and Asian adults (16% each) to say the change is bad for society.

Among White adults, views differ little from the pattern in the overall public. About six-in-ten White adults of all ages say the declining share of White people in the population is neither good nor bad for society. But about a third of White adults 65 and older (35%) say it is bad for society, while just 13% of those under 30 say the same. And consistent with the overall partisan differences in these views, White Democrats (23%) are far more likely than White Republicans (3%) to say the declining share of White people in the U.S. population is good for society. Conversely, White Republicans are three times as likely as White Democrats (36% vs. 12%) to say this change is bad.

{snip}