Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The number of Hispanics skyrocketed by roughly 58 percent over the last decade, drawing virtually even with non-Hispanic blacks as the nation’s largest minority group, newly released government figures showed today.

The figures from the national head count showed 35,305,818 Hispanics in 2000, slightly fewer than the 35,383,751 non-Hispanic blacks.

It further documented the changing complexion of America reflected in data released last week to several states, which showed that 2.4 percent, or 6,826,228, of Americans identified themselves as members of more than one race.

The rapid change in diversity is “our big story,” said John Long of the Census Bureau’s Population Division.

The Hispanic population surged 57.9 percent since 1990, from 22.3 million in 1990 to 35.3 million in 2000. America’s non-Hispanic black population increased by 21.1 percent, to 35.4 million, while the non-Hispanic Asian population grew by as much as 74.3 percent, to 11.5 million.

In the 2000 head count, people could identify themselves as members of any of 63 racial categories, compared with only five categories in the previous census. Direct comparisons between the two censuses are thus impossible.

Also, “Hispanic” is considered an ethnicity, not a race; people of Hispanic ethnicity can be of any race.

The growth rate for America’s white population was much slower. The number of non-Hispanic whites increased by 5.3 percent, to 198.2 million, the figures showed.

Despite all the choices available to census respondents, “The overwhelming majority of the U.S. population — roughly 98 percent — re

ported only one race,” said the Census Bureau’s Claudette Bennett.
The national-level figures come at the start of a hectic period in which the Census Bureau must transmit by April 1 detailed population data to all 50 states.

Governors and state legislative leaders will use the data to remap congressional, state and local legislative districts. The numbers are also used to distribute more than $185 billion per year in federal money among the states.

The data officials will receive will present a more elaborate picture of America than in the past, because people responding to the 2000 census had far more options on how they could identify themselves racially.

The 2.4 percent of Americans in this census who said they were of more than race was on target with previous government estimates of how many would take advantage of this first-time opportunity.

Respondents in 1990 could select from only five categories: “white,” “black,” “American Indian, Eskimo or Aleutian,” “Asian or Pacific Islander” and “some other race.”

The 2000 census gave the option of choosing from one of 63 race options, including “white,” “black or African American,” “American Indian and Alaska Native,

” “Asian,” “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander” and “some other race.”
The figures released today confirmed long-held forecasts of a growth in the Hispanic and Asian populations, which demographers said was spurred mainly by immigration.