Hawai'i maintained its status as the nation's most racially diverse state in the latest population estimates released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

According to the estimates, 76.7 percent of Hawai'i's population identify themselves as minorities, the highest proportion in the nation.

Three other states and the District of Columbia also are "majority-minority": Texas, which has a growing Hispanic population, California and New Mexico.

In Hawai'i, Asians are the largest group, with 58 percent of the state's population, which also is tops in the nation. Hispanics make up the largest minority group in Texas, California and New Mexico, while in the District of Columbia African-Americans make up the largest group.

Hawai'i had the largest number and largest proportion of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders: 279,700, or 22 percent of the state's population. The City and County of Honolulu led all other U.S. counties in the estimated population of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders at 183,200.

Author Tom Coffman, who has written several books that discuss the role of race in Hawai'i's society, said the state's modern history has been marked by diversity.

"When Hawai'i was annexed by the United States (in 1898), its population was 3 to 4 percent Caucasian, which is a very little-known fact," Coffman said. "It was 2 percent American and American-descendant Caucasians. And it was a couple of percent Caucasian and 95 percent-plus nonwhite — Hawaiian, Japanese, Chinese, etc."

As a heavily nonwhite state, "Hawai'i has been and is the pacesetter in terms of what a multiracial democracy really means," he said. "While Hawai'i hasn't been perfect, I think Hawai'i has created a model for bringing people together in increasingly democratic ways."

The Census Bureau said five other states are close to being majority-minority states. Maryland, Mississippi, Georgia, New York and Arizona each have about 40 percent minorities. Blacks and Hispanics are the largest minority groups in those states.

Public policy analysts said these states and the country as a whole need to bring minority education and professional achievement to the levels of whites. Otherwise, these areas risk becoming poorer and less competitive in the world market.

With the nation's under-18 minority population already nearing that of whites of the same age group, the nation should be more than half minorities by 2050, said Steve Murdock, a demographer at the University of Texas-San Antonio.

William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., said bringing minorities' education and salary levels in line with whites should be a top priority and needs federal support.

This demographic shift, which Frey and other experts attribute to Hispanic immigration, also could lead to more bilingual education. The demand already exists and is not being addressed, said Tatcho Mindiola, director of the University of Houston's Center for Mexican American Studies.

Mindiola said the country should expect to see an eventual political shift, which is likely to include more Hispanics running for public office at all levels of government.