Decline of White Working Class in U.S. Spells Trouble for Trump
- Group’s share of population drops below 40%, Fed study shows
- College graduates and nonwhites backed Clinton in 2016
Workers install parts underneath a semi truck cab at an assembly facility in Pennsylvania.
Photographer: Luke Sharrett/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The number of white working-class Americans dropped below 40% of the population for the first time last year, reflecting demographic shifts that could pose a challenge for President Donald Trump’s election in 2020.
White Americans without a four-year college represented 71% of the population in 1975. Their decline as a share of the population is expected to continue and they will no longer be the largest demographic group by 2034, according to a blog post Tuesday from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.