New Census Data Shows County-by-County Changes

By Margaret Lyons in News on Aug 8, 2008 6:31PM

New census data says that Cook County had the biggest drop in white population and has the largest black population of any county in America. Between 2000 and 2007, 215,525 non-Hispanic white people have left Cook County, which represents a 1.1 percent decrease. The black population in the county also dropped by 1.5 percent, and the total population of the county is down 1.7 percent.

Racial and ethnic minorities now make up 43 percent of the population under 20. From the NYT:

Even with the growing diversity, all but one of the 82 counties where blacks make up a majority are in the South (except St. Louis), all but two of the 46 where Hispanics are in the majority are in the South or the West (except the Bronx and Seward, Kan., home to giant meatpacking plants), and four of the five counties with the largest proportion of Asians are in Hawaii (San Francisco rounds out the top five with 33 percent).

Except for two counties in New Mexico and South Dakota with large American Indian populations, the 10 counties with the highest proportion of minorities were along or near the Mexican border.

The entire massive data set is here, and if you want to make a map or table or something schmantzypants with it, send it to us so we can post it and marvel at your magnificent nerdery. [S-T, NYT]