Demographics in USA

Population
The mean center of the U.S. population continues to drift farther west and south. The fastest growing region is the West followed by the South. According to Census 2000, the states that saw the greatest increases from 1990 were: Nevada (66.3%), Arizona (40%), Colorado (30.6%), Utah (29.6%), Idaho (28.5%), Georgia (26.4%), Florida (23.5%), Texas (22.8%), North Carolina (21.4%), and Washington (21.1%).

Major demographic trends include the mass immigration of Hispanics from Latin America into the Southwest; home to 21,207,659 of the country’s 35,305,818 Latinos (their numbers increased 57.9% nationally in the 1990s). The West Coast has been the residence of choice for immigrating Asians, particularly from China. The West Coast is now home to approximately 5,000,000 of the nation’s 10,000,000 citizens with Asian ancestry (illustrating a rise of 52.4% during the 1990s).

Ethnicity and race
Main article: Racial demographics of the United States

The United States is a very racially diverse country. According to the 2000 census, it has 31 ethnic groups with at least one million members each, and numerous others represented in smaller amounts.

The majority of Americans descend from white European immigrants who arrived at the establishment of the first colonies (most after Reconstruction). This majority–69.1% in 2000–decreases each year, and is expected to become a plurality within a few decades. The most frequently stated European ancestries are German (15.2%), Irish (10.8%), English (8.7%), Italian (5.6%) and Scandinavian (3.7%). Many immigrants also hail from Slavic countries such as Poland and Russia. Other significant immigrant populations came from eastern and southern Europe and French Canada.

Hispanics from Mexico and South and Central America are second only to the German-American population (15.2%). Hispanics comprise 13.5% of the population (2004 Update of the 2000 census). People of Mexican descent made up 7.3% of the population in the 2000 census, and this proportion is expected to increase significantly in the coming decades.

Approximately 12.9% (2000 census) of the American people designated themselves as Black or Black in combination with some other race African Americans. African Americans are spread throughout the country, but their presence is largest in the South.

Asian Americans–including Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders–are a third significant minority (3.7% of the population in 2000). Most Asian Americans are concentrated on the West Coast and Hawaii. The largest groups are immigrants or descendants of emigrants from the Philippines, China, India, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan.

Indigenous peoples in the United States, such as American Indians and Inuit, make up 0.9% of the population (2000 census). About 35% live on Indian reservations.

For the first time ever, American citizens were able to list all of the racial, ethnic, or ancestry groups which they felt was appropriate for them. For example, a dual ancestry person was counted in the Italian and the Irish ancestry group or a biracial person was counted in the White and Black groups.