executive education
DEPT
by By Steve H. Murdock and Michael E. Cline
A POORER
AND LESS
COMPETITIVE
TEXAS?
Population and Related
Socioeconomic Change
in Texas
The population of Texas more than doubled
in size over the past 50 years from a population of just over 11 million in 1970, to over
25 million by 2010. By 2013 its population
was estimated to be 26.4 million – seven
times larger than a century ago. Texas is
the second largest state (behind California
at over 37 million in 2010) and had the
largest population increase of any state
from 2000-2010, an increase of nearly 4.3
million, compared to California’s growth of
3.4 million. During the period from April
1, 2010 to July 1, 2013, it increased by 1.3
million, compared to 1.1 million in California. Texas is a large, rapidly growing state.
The Growing Diverse Population
Texas population growth also reflects increasing racial/ethnic diversity. From 2000
to 2010, Texas population increased by over
4.2 million with 10.8 percent being due
to an increase in the non-Hispanic White
population, 65.0 percent to Hispanic, 12.2
percent to non-Hispanic Black and 12.0 percent was due to growth in Asian and Other
non-Hispanic populations. Thus, 89 percent
of all population growth in the state was
due to minority populations and, by 2010
Texas was a majority minority state.
Indicative of likely future trends is the
fact that from 2000 to 2010, the number
of non-Hispanic White children decreased
by more than 184,000, while the number
of Hispanic children increased by 931,000.
Although not as diverse as Texas, the United
States is showing similar patterns with only
8
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8.3 percent of the total growth of 27.3
million from 2000 to 2010 being due to
non-Hispanic White, while 55.5 percent
was due to Hispanic, 13.7 percent to nonHispanic Black and 22.5 percent was due to
non-Hispanic Asian and Other populations.
Although nearly 64 percent of all persons in
the United States were non-Hispanic White
in 2010, the future is again evident in that
the number of non-Hispanic White children decreased by 4.3 million from 2000 to
2010 while the number of mi