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Census: Minority babies are now majority in United States

By Carol Morello and Ted Mellnik,May 17, 2012

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“The face of Head Start here has changed, but not the earnest desire of these families to see their children do the best they can,” said Melinda Langford, the Arlington Head Start director for Northern Virginia Family Service, a private nonprofit agency that serves 2,400 children younger than 11.

At Langford’s program, six in 10 preschoolers have parents who were born in another country. Colorful drawings line the halls and classroom walls, signed with names such as Francisco, Dayana, Khadija, Ureal, Lavand, Betel, Estefany, Brittany and Seid.

Program officials describe their mission as an affirmation of diversity as well as an educational boost for struggling kids. Sometimes they face cultural challenges, such as parents accustomed to disciplining their children more harshly than U.S. laws allow. To help with communication, Head Start employs class assistants and family advocates who are native speakers of a wide range of languages.

Cherlin said the immigrant baby boom will eventually taper off. Studies suggest that the children and grandchildren of the newest immigrants will have birthrates much closer to those of non-Hispanic whites.

“The changes to the country may not be as huge as some people think,” he said. “Immigrants will change our society, but our society will change the immigrants.”

The new census estimates also offered a glimpse of a region that reflects national trends and in some cases defies them.

The District continued its rebound, attracting 16,000 new residents from all age groups — in one year gaining almost as many people as the 20,000 it added the entire previous decade. Although the number of African Americans rose by more than 2,000, their proportion dipped below 50 percent for the first time in decades. Whites had the biggest increase, at 8,000. But among babies, the number of Hispanic infants rose the most as a percentage, up 70 percent, to 1,700. The number of infants who are white also rose sharply, while there were fewer African American babies.

In both Maryland and Virginia, the numbers of Hispanics and Asians continued to grow sharply. The number of blacks increased modestly, while the number of whites was virtually unchanged.

In Prince George’s County, one of the most affluent majority-black counties in the nation, the number of African Americans declined slightly, while Hispanics and whites gained.

Staff writers Pamela Constable and Luz Lazo contributed to this report.

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