California’s Hispanics Will Outnumber Whites by 2014, State Says

Hispanics will outnumber whites in California next year for the first time and will represent almost half of all residents by 2060, the state’s Finance Department said.

A larger percentage of the working-age population will be Hispanic and Asian as the white baby boomer population ages into retirement, according to a department report today.

“These younger and more diverse cohorts will help maintain the potential for the growth of the labor force and the economy in California,” according to a department news release.

California’s population changes mirror those nationwide. Hispanics and Asians are the nation’s fastest-growing minority groups, doubling by 2060, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By 2043, minorities as a whole will make up the majority of the U.S. population, though whites will still be the largest single group.

-- With assistance from Frank Bass in Washington. Editors: Stephen Merelman, Mark Schoifet

To contact the reporter on this story: Alison Vekshin in San Francisco at avekshin@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Merelman in New York at smerelman@bloomberg.net.