Census Data Shows a Changed American Landscape; New Population Center Is Plato, Mo.

March 24, 2011 — -- The American landscape shifted dramatically during the past 10 years and the population center of the country moved about 40 miles west from Edgar Springs, Mo., in 2000, to Plato, Mo., population 109.

The Census Bureau announced the mean center of population as 2.7 miles northeast of Plato -- an hour's drive south and west of the population center 10 years go.

In 2000, the population center of the country rested in Phelps County, Mo., and in 1790, the year Washington, D.C. was named the nation's capital, the mean center of population sat in Kent County, Md. The mean center represents the middle of the nation's population distribution.

Over the past decade, the country's population bent further west and became more Hispanic, multi-racial and mobile, with people moving toward the Sun Belt and away from cities to suburbs.

The final local data from the 2010 Census released today reveals a significant change in the racial composition of the country.

"The minority population is going to make up an even larger share of the nation's growth than it did in the 1990s," said William Frey, a demographer at The Brookings Institution. "People are going to appreciate more why the minority growth is important in the U.S."

The expansion in the Hispanic or Latino population crossed the 50 million mark for the first time in 2010, making people of Hispanic origin the second largest group in the country. The total Hispanic population in 2010 was 50,477,594 or 16.3 percent of the total population, a 43 percent increase from a decade ago.

In Alabama, Kentucky, Maryland and six other states, the Hispanic population more than doubled, and in the booming Southwest, Hispanics accounted for the greatest spike in growth. In the state of New Mexico, the Hispanic population eclipsed the white population for the first time, rising to make up more than 46 percent of the state's population compared with the 40 percent for whites. Hispanic populations in California and Texas inched closer to becoming their states' majorities.

Some states would have lost a significant amount of their population without the boost in minority growth. Massachusetts grew by just a bit more than 198,000 people while its white population fell by 194,000. The 46 percent growth in both the Hispanic and Asian populations boosted its overall population and prevented the state from experiencing a negative growth rate.

A large portion of the minority growth is attributed to the rise of Hispanics in the youth population. In Nevada, 61 percent of children are minorities compared with 41 percent of adults.

"As a nation, our youth is looking a lot different than the middle age population," Frey said. "The younger part of the population is becoming more diverse than the older part."