SPOKANE – Washington continues to grow more diverse, primarily due to people of Hispanic heritage who are pouring into the state, according to 2006 population estimates from the Census Bureau.
The newly released estimates showed that Hispanics were providing much of the population growth in counties ranging from Spokane to Grays Harbor.
Franklin County, which includes Pasco, recently became the first county in the state in which Hispanics comprised the majority of the population.
The findings were not a surprise, said Yi Zhao, a demographer with the state Office of Financial Management
“In most states Hispanics are the fastest-growing group,” she said. “We are not unusual.”
But the explosion of the Hispanic population had been largely confined to Eastern Washington’s farm counties in past decades. Now the growth is more spread out, although it remains most obvious in the central portion of the state.
The Census Bureau’s report has population estimates by race and ethnicity for every county in the nation. They are the first such estimates since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, scattering hundreds of thousands of people.
Although statewide totals are not included in this new report, the Census Bureau has previously estimated that Washington had about 6.4 million residents in 2006, up from 5.9 million in 2000.
Census Bureau figures for 2005 indicated some 77 percent of Washington residents were non-Hispanic whites, 6.4 percent were Asian, 3.5 percent black and 1.7 percent American Indian. Hispanics made up nearly 9 percent of the state population in 2005. Nationally, Hispanics are more than 14 percent of the population. The rest of the state population consisted of people who report they are of multiple races.
The new report said that in percentage terms among larger counties, the Hispanic population grew 35 percent in Clark County between 2000 and 2006, 35 percent in Snohomish County and 28 percent in Pierce County. Hispanics grew up 27 percent in King County, while the white population in the state’s most populous county actually dropped by 1 percent.
Adams County had a 13 percent rise in the number of Hispanics, while other groups collectively fell 3 percent. Yakima County saw its Hispanic population rise 14 percent while its non-Hispanic population dropped 2 percent.
Tiny Garfield County saw its total population drop 8 percent even as Hispanics were growing by 20 percent.
Nationally, whites are now in the minority in nearly one in 10 U.S. counties. As of 2006, non-Hispanic whites made up less than half the population in 303 of the nation’s 3,141 counties, the Census Bureau said.
Those include Franklin County, which according to 2006 Census estimates is nearly 57 percent Hispanic, up from 47 percent in 2000. Neighboring Adams County is 52 percent Hispanic.
Overall, Washington state’s Hispanic population grew by 28 percent from 2000 to 2006. That makes it the fastest-growing minority population in a state that borders not Mexico, but Canada.
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