White Americans will be no longer the majorities in the United States around 2050, eight years later than previous expectation, said a Census Bureau report released on Wednesday, Xinhua reported.
The Census Bureau has earlier predicted that white children will become a minority in 2023 and the whole white population will follow in 2042.
However, due to the economic crisis and stricter immigration policies after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the flow of foreigners into the United States has been slowed.
The updated report said that the total U.S. population, which currently stands at 308 million people, is expected to reach 399 million by 2050, and the whites will make up 49.9 percent of the total, instead of two-thirds now.
By 2050, the black will remain accounting for 12.2 percent, and Hispanics' share will rise from 15 percent now to 28 percent, said the report, adding that Asians will also increase their share from 4.4 percent to 6 percent during the same period.
However, the bureau noted that the prospect of the demographic shift will not be only based on birth and death rates, but also influenced by a number of uncertain factors, including the economic growth, cultural changes and disasters as well as the immigration policy reform.
So the projections can be used more as a guide, it added.