The new face of America: for the first time, more minorities are being born in the U.S. than whites. What does that mean for the nation's identity?

• Author: Majerol, Veronica
• Position: Cover story

Jessica Ramirez was born to a Colombian mother and a Mexican father. But growing up in Phoenix, Arizona, she rarely thought of herself as a minority.

"I felt that I was equal," says Ramirez, who is now 22 and a senior at Arizona State University. "The school I went to was predominantly Latino.... So I just felt that I was normal."

Ramirez's story is indicative of a massive demographic shift under way in the United States: The Census Bureau announced last spring that minority births--Hispanic, black, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, and Alaska Native--now outnumber those of non-Hispanic whites.

The shift is monumental for a nation that was founded by white English-speaking Europeans, and has long wrestled with issues of race and ethnicity and engaged in highly charged debates over immigration. It also has broad implications for the country's economy, its political life, and its identity.

"This is an important tipping point," says William H. Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He describes the change as a "transformation from a mostly white baby-boomer culture to the more globalized multiethnic country that we are becoming."

'Majority-Minority' Nation

Minorities already make up the majority of the population in four states, plus Washington, D.C. (see map, p. 6). The same is true in some major U.S. cities, including New York, Las Vegas, and Memphis. But unlike in decades past, minority populations are no longer concentrated in major urban centers: They now outnumber whites in 348 of the more than 3,000 counties across the U.S.

Whites still make up the majority (63 percent) of the U.S. population. But by 2042, minorities are on pace to collectively outnumber whites, according to Census Bureau estimates (see graph, facing page). And the change is happening even faster among younger Americans: By 2020, whites will likely make up less than half of the under-18 population.

Several factors have contributed to the shift. First, in the last three decades, immigration to the U.S. has been highest from countries like Mexico, China, India, and the Philippines--a result of the 1965 Immigration Act, which opened the doors more widely to immigrants from countries outside Europe. Second, non-whites have higher birth rates than whites. And finally, the white population in the U.S. is getting older, and older people tend to have fewer children.

Social changes are also driving the shift. The number of mixed-race marriages--and, as a result, mixed-race children--is on the rise: Multiracial and multiethnic Americans are among the fastest growing demographic groups in the U.S., with 9...