America's Multiracial Takeover?

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Between the years 2000 and 2010, the number of Americans who consider themselves multiracial grew faster than those who self-identify as a single race. It's not just the visible biracial folks in the White House and Hollywood, either. The largest gains were among those who identify as both white and black and were found in the formerly (clearly, not so much anymore) segregated South.

A new Census Bureau reports shows that South Carolina alone saw its multiracial population double. From the Huffington Post:

Those identifying with multiple races grew by 32 percent over the decade, for a total of 9 million. Single-race identifiers grew by just 9.2 percent, according to the 2010 Census, which also showed the slowest overall population growth rate since the Great Depression …

Among the highlights of the 23-page report:

The number of Americans who identify as both white and black soared by 134 percent, more than any other combination. Next was the white-and-Asian population, which increased by 87 percent.

More than 1.5 million people identified as multiple-minority — that is, they checked more than one box but not the box for white. Among them, the black-and-Asian population increased by 74 percent….

Nine states saw a 70 percent or greater increase in their multiple-race population — all but one of them, South Dakota, in the South as defined by the Census Bureau. South Carolina saw its multiracial population double, while North Carolina, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia and Mississippi all notched big gains.

Among cities with at least 100,000 people, Honolulu had the highest proportion of residents reporting two or more races — 16 percent. It also had the highest proportion who listed Asian, Native Hawaiian or "other Pacific Islander" among their races. Lansing, Mich., had the highest proportion of multiple-race blacks, while Anchorage, Alaska, had the highest proportion of multiple-race American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Read more at the Huffington Post.

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