California sees big boost in minority population

Nearly 60 percent of the state's population is minority, according to 2010 data from the Census Bureau, up from 53.3 percent in 2000. That breaks out to 22.3 million minority (about two-third of which are Hispanic), and 14 million non-Hispanic white. Next-highest minority population is Texas (13.7 million), followed by New York (8.1 million), Florida (7.9 million), and Illinois (4.7 million). Many of the minority gains comes from a 43 percent increase in the Hispanic population in the U.S.

From the Washington Post:

"This was a pivot decade," said William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution. "We're pivoting from a white-black-dominated American population to one that is multiracial and multicultural." More than 8 million Americans described themselves in the census as multiracial, about a quarter more than did in the previous census. Many who said that were people who described themselves as Hispanic -- an ethnicity -- and white -- a race. Though the percentage remains small, it reflects both a growing number of interracial marriages and a growing willingness of people to identify themselves as belonging to more than one race. "That's a tremendous leap forward in American society for tolerance, openness and of young people's willigness to get over the difficulties that might exist to find romance, marriage and ultimately children," said Edwin C. Darden, a former vice president with the Association of MultiEthnic Americans.