Is the white population in the US really ‘shrinking’? | Allison Plyer and Joseph Salvo

Increasing numbers of Americans identify as more than one race. But that's not the same as white population decline

The Census Bureau released the first detailed results of the 2020 census this month, and many media reports highlighted the nation's growing diversity, which is real, and the dramatically shrinking white population, which is ... not so much.

First the data: The white population didn't shrink" to 57.8% as widely reported - unless you believe in the old one-drop" rule, where one ancestor of another race means you are not fully and authentically accepted as white. Moreover, this statistic excludes people who checked the Hispanic box, many of whom identify as ethnically Hispanic but racially white.