Latinos accounted for half of the 2.9 million U.S.population growth from 2003 to 2004 and now constitute one-seventh of all people in the United States..
A Census Bureau report issued Thursday said that trend probably will continue because of immigration and a Latino birth rate outstripping non-Latino blacks and whites.
The population growth for Asian Americans ran a close second. Increases in both groups are due largely to immigration but also higher birth rates.
The Latino growth rate for the 12 months starting July 2003 was 3.6 percent compared with the overall population growth of 1 percent.
View more facts about trends affecting the workforce at The Perfect Labor Storm website.
The growth rate was 3.4 percent for Asian Americans, 1.7 percent for native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders, 1.3 percent for blacks, 1 percent for Native Americans and Alaska
That meant that at the beginning of July last year, the population was an estimated 294 million with the following racial and ethnic breakdown: 240 million whites, 39.2 million blacks, 14 million Asian Americans, 4.4 million Native Americans and Alaskans, and 980,000 native Hawaiians and other islanders.
