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8.14.2008

racial minorities will be the majority in 2050

Get ready, America. According to new projections released by the U.S. Census Bureau, racial minorities will be the majority in America by 2050: Minorities expected to be majority in 2050.

Minorities, classified as those of any race other than non-Hispanic, single-race whites, currently constitute about a third of the U.S. population. But that's going to change, baby. By 2042, they are projected to become the majority, making up more than half the population. By 2050, 54 percent of the population will be minorities. And by 2023, more than half of all children will be minorities.

The Asian American population is expected to increase from 15.5 million to 40.6 million, or from 5.1 percent to 9.2 percent of the population.

No, it's not part of some nefarious master plan for people of color to take over the nation. It's just the way the population happens to be shifting. Calm down. Still, expect lots of misguided white people to freak out after hearing these projections.