Nonwhites reported in majority in 48 of 100 biggest U.S. cities

Hispanic population up by 3.8 million in decade

By Eric Schmitt NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

April 30, 2001

WASHINGTON -- For the first time, nearly half the nation's 100 largest cities are home to more blacks, Hispanics, Asians and other minorities than whites, an analysis of the latest census figures shows.

Though the population of the country's fastest-growing cities, such as Las Vegas and Phoenix, increased in all racial and ethnic categories, most American cities -- 71 of the top 100 -- lost white residents.

As a result, non-Hispanic whites are now a minority of the total population in the 100 largest urban centers.

Even as whites were leaving many urban cores for suburbs and beyond, the largest cities gained 3.8 million Hispanic residents, an increase of 43 percent from a decade ago.

In the city of San Diego, the white population declined by 1.2 percent, from 745,406 in 1990 to 736,207 in 2000. During that period, the city's Latino population jumped to 310,752 from 229,519, an increase of more than 35 percent. The black population rose to 96,216 from 92,830, an increase of 3.6 percent.

Despite the decline of its white population, San Diego remained 60 percent white.

The mixture of white flight from central cities and the influx of Hispanics, in particular, underscores the extent to which immigration and higher birth rates among the foreign-born are changing the complexion of U.S. cities.

"What this shows is the volatility and complexity of change in the United States today," said Bruce Katz, director of the Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy at the Brookings Institution here.

Many of these new findings are in a draft analysis prepared by the center, which offers some of the most detailed evidence to date of increasing diversity in the nation's cities.

Katz said cities' tax bases may be shrinking. Economic data from the 2000 census will not be out until next year, but the Census Bureau estimates median annual household income at about $14,000 less for Hispanics than for non-Hispanic whites.

Whites are now a majority in 52 of the biggest 100 cities, down from 70 in 1990, researchers found. Overall, the top 100 cities lost more than 2 million whites between 1990 and 2000, with the white share of the total population falling to 44 percent from 52 percent.

Alan Berube, a senior research analyst at Brookings who conducted much of the center's analysis, said the ability of people to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race in the 2000 census could mean that the decline in cities' white population was slightly less than 2.3 million people.

It is possible, Berube said, that some people who identified themselves as white in 1990 classified themselves as multiracial in the latest census.

Nonetheless, the rise in the number of minorities is fueling a renaissance in some urban centers and forcing civic leaders to confront wrenching decisions on how to cope with new and fast-changing populations.

"The most important factor for public officials to be aware of in the next 10 to 20 years is that the vitality of cities will depend on their ability to attract and be a hospitable environment for minorities," said John R. Logan, director of the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research at the State University of New York at Albany.

Overall, the analysis found that cities that bucked the trend of declining white population grew rapidly in the 1990s. These included Sun Belt cities such as Austin, Texas, (a 21 percent increase in the white population), and Las Vegas (a 49 percent increase).

In the 20 fastest-growing cities, the Brookings analysis found that the white population rose 5 percent, the black population 23 percent, the Asian population 69 percent and the Hispanic population 72 percent.

"The decline in non-Hispanic whites is greater than we expected, and we don't really know what's going on," said Dowell Myers, a demographer at the University of Southern California.

Copyright 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

-- Anonymous, April 30, 2001