SPOKANE — Minorities make up a majority of the population in two of Washington’s 39 counties, Adams and Franklin, according to new estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Hispanics are the largest minority group in both Eastern Washington counties, as of July 1, 2008.
Hispanics are also the state’s largest minority group, totaling 643,687 residents, nearly 10 percent of the state’s 6.5 million population. Among other minority groups, there were 437,783 Asians; 245,000 blacks; 112,965 Indians; and 31,833 Pacific Islanders. There were 201,254 people who identified themselves as two or more races.
As a state, Washington is 24.5 percent minority, well below the national average of 34.4 percent, but substantially more than neighboring Oregon (20 percent) and Idaho (14.9 percent).
As of July 1, Washington had 1.6 million minority residents. That’s up 3.8 percent from 1.55 million in 2007. That was higher than the 2.3 percent national growth rate for minorities for the year.
Adams County, which includes Ritzville, is 57.2 percent minority, with 9,886 of its 17,285 residents identifying themselves as minorities.
Franklin County, which includes Pasco, is 54.4 percent minority, with 39,577 minority residents out of 72,783 people.
Franklin County was the only majority-minority county in the state after the 2000 Census. It also has the fastest-growing minority population, up 6.2 percent in the past year, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.
Yakima County was 48.9 percent minority in 2008. Other counties above 30 percent included Grant (39.6 percent) and King (31.3 percent). King County, the state’s largest, had the most minorities at 586,906 people.
Majority-minority is defined as more than half the population being of a group other than single-race, non-Hispanic white. Nearly 10 percent of the nation’s 3,142 counties were majority-minority as of July 1, 2008. There were 48 majority-Hispanic counties nationally.
Hispanics were also the largest and fastest-growing minority group nationally, with a population reaching 46.9 million in 2008, up by 3.2 percent from 2007.
The median age of Washington residents — 37.2 years — was higher than the 35.4 median in 2000. It was also higher than the national median of 36.8 years.
The state was about evenly split in sex, with 3.27 million women and 3.26 million men.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
