Generation Z – born between 1997 and 2013 – will become the last majority-white generation in America, with non-Hispanic whites becoming a “majority minority” with the arrival of Generation Alpha – those born since 2010, according to recent census data.
The number of non-Hispanic white people is projected to fall below 50 percent as early as 2045, with that number set to drop further among the under-18 population, which is expected to make up just 40 percent of America’s population by 2050. Indeed, racial minorities accounted for “all net population growth in post-baby-boomer generations,” reports the Brookings Institution, which analyzed the census data.
Non-Hispanic whites make up only 47 percent of Generation Z, which is the first generation in American history that white people are not an absolute majority. Among those over 75s, white people make up 77 percent of the population, compared to 67 percent of those aged between 55 and 64, and 55 percent of those between the ages of 35 to 44.
Richard Alba, professor emeritus in sociology at the City University of New York, said: “In a sense, we’re forming a new kind of mainstream society here, which is going to be very diverse. But whites are going to be a big part of that. It’s not like they’re going to disappear and be supplanted.”
