California Latino population grew in last decade while number of whites fell, census shows

California grew more diverse over the past decade as substantial increases among its Latino and Asian American residents accounted for nearly all of the state’s population gains, according to 2020 census data released on Thursday.

From 2010 to 2020, the number of Latinos in California grew by about 1.6 million, or 11%, much higher than the statewide rate of 6% growth. Even so, the rate of growth was slower than the state saw from 2000 to 2010, when it added about 3 million Latinos. As of 2020, there are about 15.6 million Latinos in California.

The number of Asian residents grew by 1.2 million, or 25%. The state added about 1.1 million Asians from 2000 to 2010. There are about 6 million Asians in California.

Meanwhile, the number of white residents fell by 1.2 million, or 8.3%, to roughly 13.7 million. The number of Black residents fell by about 44,000, or 2 percent, to roughly 2.1 million.

The breakdown of California’s ethnic makeup gives a closer look at a historic census for California. For the first time in state history, California, with 39.5 million residents, is expected to lose a congressional seat because its population grew more slowly than other states. By the end of next year, it will have a delegation of 52 members in the House of Representatives, down from 53.

2020 census interrupted by COVID-19

The census unfolded during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some worry that its findings may undercount certain groups that were less likely to participate in online surveys.

Eileen Ma, director of affiliation of voting rights strategy at the Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, said the numbers show what many have known for a long time: California is growing and diversifying. Still, she has questions about the count’s accuracy.

“It’s an ongoing challenge I think for Asian communities to make sure that we’re seeing that we’re represented … so we’ll be looking out for whether these numbers seem to accurately reflect communities” she said.

The 2020 census also followed former President Donald Trump’s efforts to place a citizenship question on the census, which immigration advocates argue might have discouraged people from participating even though Trump ultimately was unsuccessful in shaping that question.

Advocates who fought Trump over the citizenship question were not surprised by results showing an increasingly diverse and Latino California.

“In the last decade, 65% of growth in California’s population has been Latino. … When you’re pointing to a population, but you account for 65% of the growth, that tells you that Latino California is growing. It’s the rest of California that’s not,” said Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

He expects that population growth will turn into political power in California and across the country as congressional districts are redrawn to reflect changes since 2010.

America grows more diverse

Similar population trends occurred across the country, with the nation becoming increasingly diverse. The number of Americans identifying as white declined for the first time, falling by 8.6% to 235.4 million people.

By contrast, the number of Americans who identify as Hispanic or Latino surged by 23% to 62.1 million people.

Since the 2010 count, the U.S. Census Bureau has adjusted its questions regarding people who identify as multiracial. That change contributed to a jump in the number people identified as multiracial, increasing from 9 million Americans in 2010 to 33.8 million people in 2020, a 276% increase.

Nicholas Jones, director of race and ethnicity research and outreach for the U.S. Census Bureau, said the results show the improvement in the quality of the survey, allowing people to self-identify.

“These results are not surprising as they align with our expert research and corresponding findings this past decade about the impacts of the decennial census question format on race and ethnicity reporting,” he said.

Some organizations plan to parse the data further to gauge how the pandemic might have contributed to an undercount of certain groups. A previous release of 2020 census data, for instance, showed smaller-than-expected population increases in states with large Latino populations, including Arizona, Florida and Texas.

Eric McGhee, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said even though there’s an open question about the quality of the U.S. Census, it will be difficult to determine its accuracy.

“There’s only so many ways to gauge whether it’s bad or not, and some of those methodologies are themselves compromised by the pandemic,” he said.

Ron Jarmin, acting director at the U.S. Census Bureau, said it’s too early to tell if the 2020 count missed certain groups of people. The new data will shape political redistricting in the coming year.

“While no census is perfect, we are confident that today’s redistricting results will meet our high data quality standard,” he said.

This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 12:35 PM with the headline "California Latino population grew in last decade while number of whites fell, census shows."

Andrea Briseño

The Modesto Bee

(209) 210-2652

Andrea is the equity/underserved communities reporter for The Modesto Bee’s Economic Mobility Lab. She is a Fresno native and a graduate of San Jose State University.