The study, by the University of New Hampshire, found natural decreases in the white population across 17 states in 2014, including Florida, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, which together comprise 38% of the U.S. population. That’s a big shift from 2004 when only four states had more white deaths than births. The declines, exacerbated by the Great Recession, are largely driven by an aging white population, fewer women of childbearing age, and lower fertility rates overall, according to researchers.
“The white population isn’t replacing itself,” says Ken Johnson, a University of New Hampshire demographer and co-author of the study. “That accelerates the growing diversity of the American population.”
Non-Hispanic whites are declining as a percentage of the population and they are aging and dying and not being replaced due to low fertility rates. Couple that with the highest three decades of legal immigration in our history and you see why non-Hispanic whites are declining in population as well as a percentage of the total population. It is not mainly due to your contention that whites are migrating from these 17 states elsewhere.
The evidence here is that the 17 states where the white population is declining includes some -- like California and New Mexico -- that are rapidly becoming Northern Mexico, and others -- like West Virginia and Pennsylvania -- that have some of the smallest immigrant populations in the country.
Here is the median age by state in the US. Note that the ten oldest states in the country are Maine, Vermont, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Florida, PA, CT, Montana, RI, and MA. Except for FL and MA, they have low minority populations and fewer immigrants.
