“One day - and soon - large portions of the earth will look and behave like New York,” said International Cultural Strategist Jie-Song Zhang in response to new Census data describing millennials in New York City as increasingly non-white, foreign born, and bilingual. "A multitude of ancestries sharing the same trains and parks and grocery stores.”
The US Census Bureau examined millennials—73 million young adults,18-34 — in their “Young Adults: Then and Now” report, and released a new interactive mapping tool, Census Explorer, charting millennial statistics by city, county, and state. Data is based on the most recent American Community Survey.
Nationally, 23.4 percent of Americans are between the ages of 18 and 34, and of those, 42.8 percent are minorities (defined as anything other than non-Hispanic White) which is almost double the 21.6 percent it was in 1980. In addition, 15.4 percent are foreign born and 24.6 percent speak a language other than English at home, both more than twice what they were in 1980.
This trend is even more pronounced in certain areas. In Los Angeles County, for example, 76.4 percent of millennials are minorities, 31.6 percent are foreign born, and 59.7 percent speak a language other than English at home. In New York City, 58.1 percent of millennials are minorities, 30.6 percent are foreign born, and 42.9 percent speak a language other than English at home.
Other studies have shown that 77 percent of Asian Americans and 43 percent of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders speak another language at home.
IN-DEPTH
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