Demographics of California
The Demographics of California is a complex topic, which is undergoing dynamic change. As the most populous of the states, California contains large numbers of people from a wide variety of ethnic, racial, national, and religious backgrounds. The state continues to attract significant numbers of immigrants, and continues to grow dramatically in over-all size; for example, its population is twice that of New York state, which California surpassed to become the most populous state in 1964. [citation needed]
California lacks a majority ethnic group, and is one of four "majority-minority states." There are many national communities in the state which are largest such community outside of the country of origin, with over 200 languages known to be spoken and read in California. Spanish is said to be the state's "second most spoken language", especially in the Los Angeles area and the US-Mexican border (San Diego and Imperial counties).[citation needed]
Demographers have questioned long-held theories that California will have a Hispanic majority by the year 2020, due to large-scale immigration and birth rates of Hispanic immigrants outdone non-Hispanic groups. But when California was amended statehood in 1850, it was over half of Mexican origin before Anglo-American settlers outnumbered them during the California gold rush.
California is the second most populous state in the Western Hemisphere, exceeded only by São Paulo State. More than 12 percent of U.S. citizens live in California and its population is greater than that of all but 34 countries, including the large country of Canada and the continent nation of Australia. [citation needed]
Population
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1850 | 92,597 | — | |
| 1860 | 379,994 | 310.4% | |
| 1870 | 560,247 | 47.4% | |
| 1880 | 864,694 | 54.3% | |
| 1890 | 1,213,398 | 40.3% | |
| 1900 | 1,485,053 | 22.4% | |
| 1910 | 2,377,549 | 60.1% | |
| 1920 | 3,426,861 | 44.1% | |
| 1930 | 5,677,251 | 65.7% | |
| 1940 | 6,907,387 | 21.7% | |
| 1950 | 10,586,223 | 53.3% | |
| 1960 | 15,717,204 | 48.5% | |
| 1970 | 19,953,134 | 27.0% | |
| 1980 | 23,667,902 | 18.6% | |
| 1990 | 29,760,021 | 25.7% | |
| 2000 | 33,871,648 | 13.8% |
As of 2006, California has an estimated population of 37,172,015. California is the 13th fastest-growing state. This includes a natural increase since the last census of 1,557,112 people (that is 2,781,539 births minus 1,224,427 deaths) and an increase due to net migration of 751,419 people into the state. Immigration from outside the United States resulted in a net increase of 1,415,879 people, and migration within the country produced a net increase of 564,100 people, and a decrease of 21,669. More than 12 percent of U.S. citizens live in California.
California has eight of the top 50 US cities in terms of population. Los Angeles is the nation's second largest city with a population of 3,845,541 people, followed by San Diego (8th), San Jose (10th), San Francisco (14th), Long Beach (34th), Fresno (37th), Sacramento (38th) and Oakland (44th).
The center of population of California is located in Kern County, in the town of Buttonwillow.[1]
Racial and ancestral makeup
California lacks a majority ethnic group, and is one of four "majority-minority states." The 2005 census reported that less than half of Californians were non-Hispanic White (43.%). 36% of the population is Hispanic or Latino (12.5 million people); followed by 13 percent Asian American and Pacific Islander (such as the state's large Native Hawaiian group); 7 percent African American or black; 1 percent Native American; and 5 percent biracial or multiracial. Only New Mexico and Texas have higher percentages of Latinos, but California has the highest number of any U.S. state, and Hawaii has a higher Asian American percentage than California.
| By race | White | Black | AIAN* | Asian | NHPI* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 (total population) | 79.75% | 7.65% | 1.99% | 12.39% | 0.69% |
| 2000 (Hispanic only) | 30.79% | 0.61% | 0.85% | 0.45% | 0.13% |
| 2005 (total population) | 79.07% | 7.45% | 1.93% | 13.47% | 0.71% |
| 2005 (Hispanic only) | 33.59% | 0.67% | 0.84% | 0.47% | 0.13% |
| Growth 2000–05 (total population) | 5.76% | 3.90% | 3.58% | 16.01% | 10.13% |
| Growth 2000–05 (non-Hispanic only) | -0.91% | 2.80% | 1.87% | 16.18% | 9.65% |
| Growth 2000–05 (Hispanic only) | 16.36% | 16.48% | 5.87% | 11.68% | 12.29% |
| * AIAN is American Indian or Alaskan Native; NHPI is Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | |||||
The largest named ancestries in California are Mexican (25%), German (9%), Irish (7.7%), English (7.4%) and Filipino (6%), but includes 65 other ethnicities from Albanian to Haitian to Somali. Both Los Angeles and San Francisco have large numbers of French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Scandinavian ancestry. Southern California has fewer whites/Europeans than in Northern California; the Central Valley developed a Latino majority in the 1980s and 1990s. Spanish, German and Scottish ancestries are dominant in the eastern Sierra Nevada, the far north, and the North Coast.
Mexican American's and Chicanos predominate in Southern California (esp. in older suburbs of Los Angeles, the city itself is said the largest Mexican community in the US since 1900). Also in the Imperial Valley on the US-Mexican border has the highest percentage of Latinos in the state, Riverside County especially in the eastern ends are mostly Hispanic, the Central Valley (esp. Madera County, Fresno County, Kern County, Tulare County and Yolo County) and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area like Napa Valley, Alameda and Santa Clara counties.
Many of the state's Latinos are of Mexican origin, but includes those of Caribbean (i.e. Cuban American and Puerto Rican), Central American (i.e. Guatemalan, Honduran, Salvadoran American and Nicaraguan American) and South American (i.e. Chilean American, Colombian American and Peruvian American) groups. Latinos are the largest ethnic group in Los Angeles County at over 40 percent of the county's population, but they compose a sizable community in Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento, Oakland, San Jose, Long Beach, Anaheim, San Diego and Santa Ana where they compose 75 percent of the population.
Chinese Americans are numerous in San Francisco, East Bay, South Bay, Sacramento, and the San Gabriel Valley region of Los Angeles County. The San Francisco Bay Area has a greater concentration of Cantonese-speaking Chinese. Southern California has perhaps the largest Taiwanese American community in the United States particularly in San Gabriel Valley, and in Cerritos, West Covina, Irvine (in Orange County), and some in the South Bay, Los Angeles Area.
Filipino Americans are particularly numerous in Los Angeles, San Mateo and Solano counties, and in communities such as Artesia, Baldwin Park, Cerritos, Covina, West Covina, and the community of Eagle Rock in Los Angeles. Delano near Bakersfield, the Coachella Valley, San Diego, Salinas, Stockton and Lathrop also have large Filipino populations.
There are large Korean American communities in Koreatown of Los Angeles, the eastern San Gabriel Valley, the San Fernando Valley, Cerritos/Long Beach, South Bay, Los Angeles, and in northern Orange County. There is another large Korean-American population in the San Francisco bay area.
The South Bay area and Little Tokyo have a large Japanese American community. However, Japanese Americans are also concentrated in San Francisco and across the Bay area, San Jose, the Salinas Valley, and the Bakersfield, Fresno, San Diego, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara and Sacramento areas.
Long Beach has one of the largest Cambodian American communities in the United States. The neighboring cities of Westminster and Garden Grove have the largest Vietnamese American community outside of Vietnam and are often dubbed "Little Saigon". And over 100,000 Laotian Americans live in the Fresno area, the largest of its' kind.
The Los Angeles-area cities of Artesia and Cerritos, as well as the Bay Area city of Fremont have a large Indian American/South Asian American community. There are also large Indian American populations in Central Valley cities such as Stockton, Bakersfield, Fresno, and Yuba City) and the Imperial Valley.
In 2000, California also had the largest number of Bulgarian Americans in any U.S. state and also the most Hungarian Americans of any U.S. state. California also has one of the largest numbers of Armenian Americans at 600,000. Los Angeles and San Francisco has large Russian American populations, as well the cities had a long history of small ethnic communities such as Irish Americans, Italian Americans, German Americans and Polish Americans, descendants of late 19th century immigration.
There are an estimated 500,000 Iranian Americans in Southern California including 20% of Beverly Hills.[2] But, Iranian communities also flourish in the San Fernando Valley, Orange County and the San Joaquin Valley. The majority came after the oust of the pro-U.S. Shah regime of Iran in the late 1970s.
The state also has over 500,000 Arab Americans, with large communities in Alameda, Fresno, Imperial, Kern, Orange, San Diego and Stanislaus counties. A great percentage came from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, but in the mid-20th century a pattern of agricultural migrant labor of Middle Eastern background appeared in the Coachella Valley.[citation needed]
California has the largest population of African Americans in the western U.S., an estimated 2.1 million residents. Large African American communities are in Compton, Inglewood, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Richmond, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, and Vallejo. Bakersfield, Fresno, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose also have sizable black populations.
African Americans are approximately 7 percent of the state population, with many of them living in suburban communities, especially in the Inland Empire, the High Desert north of Los Angeles, and the Bakersfield and Fresno areas of the San Joaquin Valley. There has been a growing migration of California's middle-class blacks out of the state since the early 1990s, and many demographers believe that the state's black percentage and population have been dropping since then.[citation needed]
California's Native American population of 376,000 is the most of any state. It also has the most Native American tribes (indigenous to the state or not). The US Census includes Latin American Indians, esp. immigrants who belong to indigenous peoples or hold Amerindian heritage of Central and South America. The majority of Mexican-Americans indicated to possessed some indigenous (Native Californian) heritage.
The Cherokee Nation is the largest tribe in the state with a population of 110,000, although the number of Cherokee descendants may surpass 500,000. They are often descendants of Dust Bowl refugees in the 1930s and 1940's who migrated to the state's farming counties and urban areas for jobs. Cherokees tend to congregate in Bakersfield, Fresno, Oakland/San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento. And the Los Angeles area is said to have the largest Native American population of any US metro area. [citation needed]
California also has significant populations of the Apache, Choctaw, Creek, Navajo, Blackfeet, and Chumash tribes. In the inland southern areas, local tribal nations own and operate successful gaming and casino enterprises which promote tribal economic self-sufficiency and provide entertainment for the communities they serve.[citation needed]
Languages
As of 2000, 60.5% of California residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 25.8% speak Spanish. Mandarin Chinese is the third most spoken language at 2.6%, followed by Tagalog at 2.0% and Vietnamese at 1.3%.[3] Over 200 languages are known to be spoken and read in California, with Spanish used as the state's "alternative" language.
The indigenous languages of California number more than one hundred and show great diversity making California one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world. All of California's indigenous languages are endangered, although there are now efforts toward language revitalization.[4]
Since 1986, the California Constitution has specified that English is the common and official language of the state. The politics of language is a major political issue in the state, especially in regard to language policy controlling the teaching and official use of immigrant languages.
Religion
In pure numbers, the state has the most Roman Catholics and Mormons in the US, ahead of New York state and Mormon majority Utah; a large American Jewish community (the largest in the western US), esp. concentrated in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Oakland and Palm Springs; and a rapidly-growing Islamic population with large Islamic communities are in west Los Angeles, San Diego, Orange County, Santa Clara County, and the Modesto area.
There's a thriving number of new age, cult movements, and Eastern religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Sikhism, and Taoism that symbolize California as a progressive place for theological innovation since the 1960s, while the Eastern religions were partly introduced by Asian immigrants when they settled in the state. The religious affiliations of the people of California:[citation needed]
- Christian – 77%
- Protestant – 40%
- Baptist – 8%
- Presbyterian – 3%
- Methodist – 2%
- Lutheran – 2%
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – 1%
- other Protestant or general Protestant – 23%
- Roman Catholic – 34%
- other Christian – 3%
- Protestant – 40%
- Muslim – 2%
- Jewish – 2%
- other Religions – 3%
- non-Religious – 19%
The minority of California's Roman Catholic membership are of Filipino, Irish, Italian, and Hispanic ancestry. The population of Catholic Californians is rapidly growing due to the influx of Latin American and Filipino immigrants.
As with many other Western states, the percentage of California's population identifying themselves as "non-religious" (at over 20 percent) is comparatively high in relation to the rest of the U.S.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ Population center of California.
- ^ Montagne, Renee (2006-06-08). "Living in Tehrangeles: L.A.'s Iranian Community". National Public Radio. Retrieved 2006-06-28.
- ^ "Detailed List of Languages Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over by State: 2000" (PDF). 2000 United States Census. United States Census Bureau. 2003. Retrieved April 11.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ The following are a list of the indegenous languages: Root languages of California: Athabaskan Family: Hupa, Mattole, Lassik, Wailaki, Sinkyone, Cahto, Tolowa, Nongatl, Wiyot, Chilula; Hokan Family: Pomo, Shasta, Karok, Chimiriko; Algonquian Family: Whilkut, Yurok; Yukian Family: Wappo; Penutian Family: Modok, Wintu, Nomlaki, Konkow, Maidu, Patwin, Nisenan, Miwok, Coast Miwok, Lake Miwok, Ohlone, Northern Valley Yokuts, Southern Valley Yokuts, Foothill Yokuts; Hokan Family: Esselen, Salinan, Chumash, Ipai, Tipai, Yuma, Halchichoma, Mohave; Uto-Aztecan Family: Mono Paiute, Monache, Owens Valley Paiute, Tubatulabal, Panamint Shoshone, Kawaisu, Kitanemuk, Tataviam, Gabrielino, Juaneno, Luiseno, Cuipeno, Cahuilla, Serrano, Chemehuevi
