Census Shows Big Increase In Hispanics

W A S H I N G T O N, March 12 -- The number of Hispanics skyrocketed by roughly58 percent over the last decade, drawing virtually even withnon-Hispanic blacks as the nation's largest minority group, newlyreleased government figures showed today.

The figures from the national headcount showed there were35,305,818 Hispanics in 2000, slightly fewer than the 35,383,751non-Hispanic blacks.

It further documented the changing complexion of Americareflected in data released last week to several states.

And the American population grew even more complex. The new datashowed that 2.4 percent, or 6,826,228, of Americans identifiedthemselves as members of more than one race. The rapid change in diversity is "our big story," said JohnLong of the Census Bureau's Population Division.

Hispanic Considered Ethnicity

The Hispanic population surged 57.9 percent since 1990, from 22.3million in 1990 to 35.3 million in 2000. America's non-Hispanicblack population increased by 21.1 percent, to 35.4 million, whilethe non-Hispanic Asian population grew by as much as 74.3 percentto 11.5 million.

In the 2000 headcount, people could identify themselves asmembers of any of 63 racial categories, up from only fivecategories in the previous census. Thus, direct comparisons betweenthe two censuses are impossible. Also, "Hispanic" is considered an ethnicity, not a race;people of Hispanic ethnicity can be of any race. The growth rate for America's white population, in contrast tothat of minority groups, was much slower. The number ofnon-Hispanic whites increased by 5.3 percent, to 198.2 million, thefigures showed. Despite all the choices available to census respondents, "Theoverwhelming majority of the U.S. population — roughly 98 percent —reported only one race," said the Census Bureau's ClaudetteBennett.

The national-level figures come at the start of a hectic periodin which the Census Bureau must transmit by April 1 detailedpopulation data to all 50 states.