According to new Census Bureau projections, ethnic and racial minorities won't be that way for very long. The census calculates that by 2042, Americans who consider themselves a minority including Hispanic, black, and Asian will in combination outnumber non-Hispanic whites. Even earlier, minority children will be the majority by 2023.

The change happened quicker than previously expected, one reason being significantly higher birthrates among immigrants. Also projections of the growing influx of foreign-born immigrants show it's set to rise from 1.3 million per year now to 2 million per year by the mid-2000s, and the aging and dying of the less prolific whites. It's like a melting pot on speed; a demographer says, “no other country has experienced such rapid racial and ethnic change.”

To see what this means for the state of the population, read more.

Some states have already made the shift, with "minorities" becoming "majorities," like in CA and TX. The way we talk and report about race will follow suit. Chief Census Bureau projector says, “The way people report race 20 or 30 years from now may be very different."

Perhaps more interesting than the shift in racial makeup is the sheer growth in population: they're predicting the total US population will top 400 million in 2039, a couple of decades earlier than previously thought. Where will all those people go? Is it time to start building more condos? How will the bigger population and greater diversity affect the country?

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