

P SST!

Don't tell anyone, but the number of Asian/Americans will surpass African/Americans by the middle of this century.





10 Demographic Trends Shaping the U.S., glossed over this hugely significant shift but in one of their graphs accompanying the report, it showed that by 2065, the AAPI community will make up 14 percent of the U.S. population and the African/American population at 13 percent. A recent report from Pew Research Center,., glossed over this hugely significant shift but in one of their graphs accompanying the report, it showed that by 2065, the AAPI community will make up 14 percent of the U.S. population and the African/American population at 13 percent.





This might not have been worthy enough to mention in the Pew report, but it is BIG NEWS in the AAPI community, which has been struggling to get out from under this cloak of invisibility in order to get the attention of demographers, marketers, politicians and anybody else interested in the growing diversity of America.





At the root of the growth, says the Pew report, is immigration where immigrants from Asian countries has risen to the point of overtaking the immigration coming from Latin American countries, including Mexico.





So while this year's presidential contenders focus their attention on whether or not to build a wall on our southern border - thankfully - no one is talking about building a wall along the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii. Never mind that that feat is eve less feasible than the wall on the our border with Mexico, with the quality of some candidates' rhetoric this political season, I'm surprised that someone like GOP frontrunner Donald Trump hasn't proposed it.





That's why I wouldn't trumpet the growth of the Asian population too loudly (no pun intended), otherwise AAPIs might be more front and center in the Presidential race conversation.

The same report shows that the U.S. will become more racially and ethnically diverse as the century marches on. The Latino/American population will surge to make up 24 percent while the so-called white (Euro/American) population will drop to 46 percent. The African/American population will remain constant, around 13 to 14 percent up to 2065.





No race or ethnic group will make up the majority of the country by 2055.

Much of this change has been (and will be) driven by immigration. Nearly 59 million immigrants have arrived in the U.S. in the past 50 years, mostly from Latin America and Asia, says the report.





Today, a near-record 14 percent of the country’s population is foreign born compared with just 5 percent in 1965. Over the next five decades, the majority of U.S. population growth is projected to be linked to new Asian and Hispanic immigration.





American attitudes about immigration and diversity are supportive of these changes for the most part. More Americans say immigrants strengthen the country than say they burden it, and most say the U.S.’s increasing ethnic diversity makes it a better place to live.



