The Texas Tribune reported that Hispanics are expected to become the largest population group in Texas as soon as 2022. Today, the Lone Star State still has a bigger white population — up to 11,9 million last year — but it has only grown by some 484 000 people since 2010.
But the white population increased by only 24 075 last year, almost on par with Asian Texans, who make up a small percentage of the total population, in the same time period.
New population estimates were released on Thursday by the US Census Bureau, showing the Hispanic population increasing to nearly 11,4 million — an annual gain of 214 736 from July 2018 and an increase of 1,9 million new inhabitants since 2010.
The Hispanic population in Texas increased by 214 736 in a year while whites increased by about 484 000 in a decade.
The estimates were done so as to encourage lawmakers to focus on the 2021 redistricting cycle, when the state’s congressional and legislative maps will be redrawn to account for population growth.
The numbers highlight the extent to which the demographics of Texas continue to shift against the Republican Party, once a powerful force in the state.
The Dallas Morning News reported last year that the “Latino surge” at the polls is one reason why Democrats have been doing so well there recently. In fact, the growth of the Hispanic population might well do for Texas what it did for California: make electing a Republican virtually impossible.
In the last midterm election cycle Latinos voted to send El Paso’s Veronica Escobar and Houston’s Sylvia Garcia of Houston to Washington, DC, as the state’s first two Latinas in Congress.
National polling group Latino Decisions, noted a significant increase in Hispanic turnout from 2014 to 2018. In Dallas County, it was 86 percent, while in doubled in other counties.
Some 70 percent of hispanic voters cast their ballot for Democrats, the group reported. An exit poll from the Associated Press found the same level of support for Democrats.
“This was a concern for us,” a Republican organiser told the Dallas Morning News. “Many Latinos may have felt discouraged from voting Republican. Many Latinos put immigration above everything else.”
The Pew Research Center reported that 12,7 million Hispanics voted in 2016 versus 9,7 million in 2008, the newspaper highlighted.
Hispanic households in California make use welfare programmes at twice the rate of white households. The data are similar in Texas.