UNITED STATES, DEMOGRAPHICS

By 2020 a majority of Americans under 18 will not be white, (‘Lexington: Winning the battle’, The Economist 30th September 2016, p.48).

‘Future historians will note that from about 2011 white and non-white babies were born in roughly equal numbers, with the ageing white population on course to become a minority around 2045. This was always going to be a jarring change for a country in which whites of European descent made up 80-90% of the population for about 200 years: from the presidency of George Washington to that of Ronald Reagan,’ (‘The dividing of America’, The Economist 16th July 2016, p.10.)

‘From Europe to north-east Asia, the 21st century risks being an age of old people, slow growth and sour, timid politics. Swelling armies of the elderly will fight to defend their pensions and other public services. Between now and mid-century, Germany’s median age will rise to 52. China’s population growth will flatten and then fall; its labour force is already shrinking. Not America’s. By 2050 its median age will be a sprightly 41 and its population will still be growing. Latinos will be a big part of that story,’ (‘How to fire up America’, The Economist 14th Mar 2015, p.14).

‘For almost two centuries after America was founded, more than 80% of its citizens were whites of European descent. Today [2015], non-Hispanic whites have dropped below two-thirds of the population. They are on course to become a minority by 2044,’ (‘How to fire up America’, The Economist 14th Mar 2015, p.14).

‘America’s demography is working in football’s favour, too. Hispanics in the United States, as elsewhere in the Americas, love the game [football]. Though they make up only 16.9% of the population, the number of Hispanics grew by 43% between 2000 and 2010. Over that same period the number of non-Hispanic whites, who tend to follow America’s long-established team sports, grew by just 1.2%. Based on current trends, Mr Luker believes international football will soon be four or five times bigger in America than it is today, and MLS’s fan base will triple or quadruple,’ (‘Football: A game of two halves’, The Economist 06th June 2014, p.24).

‘For decades, Mexicans have been the largest contingent in America’s 41.3m foreign-born population. But the annual inflow has slowed dramatically. In 2013 Mexico was overtaken as the biggest source of new migrants by both China and India, according to the Census Bureau. In 2007, just before the recession, Mexicans made up 23.6% of all annual migrants. By 2013 more jobs at home and tighter border controls had reduced this to 10%, while China’s and India’s combined share rose to a quarter. These new migrants are even younger, and well-educated. Around a third of America’s 1.1m foreign students are Chinese, and some 70% of H1B visas for highly skilled jobs go to Indians,’ (‘The future’s Asian’, The Economist 06th June 2014, p.34).

‘One in six Americans is Hispanic. Today, most Hispanics were born in the United States. In some ways Latinos remain distinct. Their median age is 27 (a decade younger than the national median). They live in larger family units and are more likely to be found in certain places: 62% reside in California, Florida, Texas or New York, though the population is dispersing,’ (‘Marketing: the lust for Latin lucre’, The Economist 11th May 2013, p.63.

‘When Tommie Smith and John Carlos bowed their heads and raised their black-gloved fists during a medals ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, they moved the world. It was only six months since Martin Luther King’s murder and the race riots it sparked. The protest was also visibly supported, in a gesture of global solidarity with black Americans, by a white Australian, Peter Norman, who had finished second to Mr Smith. A memory of the humiliations suffered by Jesse Owens, America’s greatest athlete, who had bested Hitler at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 then come home to segregation, lent additional force to the protest, (‘Lexington: Winning the battle’, The Economist 30th September 2016, p.48).