The changing racial composition of U,S.

Press, 7 January 1987, Page 16

The changing racial composition of U,S.

NZPA-AP Washington Hispanics, Asians and blacks could outnumber non-Hispanic American whites a century from now, a private population group reported. If illegal : immigration remains high and annual immigration averages one million, the non-Hispanic white population would drop to just under 50 per cent in 2080, said the new study by the private, nonprofit Population Reference Bureau. The report, “Immigration to the; United States: The Unfinished Story,” was written by Leon Bouvier, a population researcher who is a former vice-president of the bureau, and Robert

Gardner, a research associate at the East-West Population Institute in Honolulu. , The 1980 census counted 226.5 million Americans, of which 79.9 per cent were whites other than Hispanics. The census said 11.7 per cent of Americans were black, 6.4 per cent were Hispanic, and 2 per cent were Asians and others. At present high immigration rates, totalling one million annually counting both legal and illegal aliens, the non-Hispanic whites could shrink to 49.8 per cent of the population by the year 2080, becoming the largest minority in a nation without any ethnic majority population.