Headline
The percentage of Hispanic children in the United States more than doubled between 1980 and 2009, from 9 percent to 22 percent, and is projected to increase to more than one-quarter (27 percent) of the child population by 2021. (See Figure 1)
Importance
The United States has a long history of ethnic and racial diversity in its population. That diversity has accelerated in recent decades, a trend which is expected to continue into the future.
Race and ethnicity have important implications for culture, identity, and well-being. Children of different races and ethnicities often show large variation in areas of well-being including health, mortality, school performance and attainment, and access to family and community resources.1 These and similar disparities are also evident in adulthood.2
According to the National Research Council, race is determined both by physical traits (skin color, hair, and so on) and by the “individual, group, and social attributes” associated with those characteristics. Race is distinguished from “ethnicity,” which does not include physical characteristics as part of its definition.3
The federal government has changed the way it defines and measures race. A key feature of the new definition allows respondents to identify themselves as being of more than one race. This new classification was used in the 2000 Decennial Census, and is being implemented in all federal surveys and administrative data collection efforts.4
Trends
From 1980 to 2000, the percentage of non-Hispanic white children fell from 74 percent to 62 percent. (See Table 1) Between 2000 and 2009, the percentage of children who were non-Hispanic white only (following the new classification system used in the 2000 decennial census, in which respondents were categorized based on single-race estimates) declined from 61 to 56 percent, and is projected to decline to 51 percent by 2021. (See Figure 2)
The percentage of the child population that is Hispanic increased from nine to 22 percent between 1980 and 2009, and is expected to increase further to 27 percent by 2021. (See Figure 1) Non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander children increased from two to four percent of the child population between 1980 and 2001. (See Table 1) Asian-only children made up four percent of the child population in 2009, and are expected to increase to five percent by 2021. (See Figure 2)
The percentage of the child population that is non-Hispanic black has stayed relatively constant at about 15 percent since 1980, and it is expected to decline only slightly, to 14 percent, by 2021. Note, however, that race categorization has changed slightly, making estimates after 2000 not directly comparable to earlier estimates. (See Figure 2)
According to data from the 2000 Census, children of one race constituted roughly 96 percent of the child population. (See Table 2) Among children who identified with more than one race, the majority were white combined with one other race (3.1 percent), with 0.8 percent identifying as white and black, 0.6 percent identifying as white and Asian, and 0.5 percent as white and American Indian or Alaska Native. (See Table 2)
State and Local Estimates
State-level population estimates by race and Hispanic origin are available here.
Estimates from the 2000 Census are available for states, counties, congressional districts, metropolitan areas, and cities here.
State population projections of the child population for 1995-2025 (based on the 1990 census) are available by race and Hispanic origin here.
International Estimates
None
Related Indicators
Number of children in the population
Data Sources
Data for 1980-1999 from America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2002, Tables POP1 and POP3. Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Tables POP 1 http://childstats.gov/ac2002/tbl.asp?id=1&iid=8 and POP 3 http://childstats.gov/ac2002/tbl.asp?id=1&iid=10
Data for 2000 and 2001 non-Hispanic white, non-Hispanic black, non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander and non-Hispanic American Indian from original analysis by Child Trends of Bridged Race 2000 and 2001 Population Estimates for Calculating Vital Rates, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2003. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/dvs/popbridge/popbridge.htm
All other data for 2000-2002 and data projections from America's Children in Brief: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2009, Tables POP1 and POP3. Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Tables POP 1 http://www.childstats.gov/ac2004/tables/pop1.asp and POP 3 http://www.childstats.gov/ac2004/tables/pop3.asp.
Data for 2003 through 2009: Child Trends calculations of U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division, Population Estimates Program. "National estimates by demographic characteristics - single year of age, sex, race, and Hispanic Origin," Monthly Post-censal Resident Population, July 2003-July 2009. Available at www.census.gov/popest/datasets.html
Data for Table 2 from unpublished estimates from the 2000 Census, produced by the Population Reference Bureau.
Raw Data Sources
All estimates in Table 1 are from the Census Bureau’s Population Projections and Estimates Branch, based on models that draw on many data sources.
Estimates for race and Hispanic subgroups that use data from the 2000 Decennial Census can be calculated (for 1990-2001) using the bridged race estimates available from the National Center for Health Statistics, http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/dvs/popbridge/popbridge.htm
Estimates based on the 1990 Census are available from the Census at http://eire.census.gov/popest/estimates.php
All Estimates in Table 2 are from the 2000 Decennial Census.
http://www.census.gov/main/www/cen2000.html
Recommended Citation: Child Trends (2009). Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Child Population. Retrieved from www.childtrendsdatabank.org/?q=node/234.
Last Update: 2009
1 Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. 2002. America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being. Available online at http://www.childstats.gov
2 Blank, R. 2001. An Overview of Trends in Social and Economic Well-Being, by Race. Chapter 2 in America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences, Volume 1. Neil J. Smelser, William Julius Wilson, and Faith Mitchell, Editors. Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Available online at
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9599.html
3 Smelser, N., Wilson, W., Mitchell, F. 2001. Introduction. In America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences, Volume 1. Neil J. Smelser, William Julius Wilson, and Faith Mitchell, Editors. Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Available online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/9599.html
4 Office of Management and Budget. 1997. Revisions to the Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. Available online at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/ombdir15.html
.
