Hispanics Outnumber Anglos in Harris County Texas

Houston Chronicle reports:

As political scientists and demographers have long predicted, the surging Hispanic population in Texas is rapidly changing the state's social landscape, economy and politics. The latest U.S. Census Bureau data indicate Lone Star government, political parties and schools are in for a period of rapid adjustment that will require innovation and insight.

At the epicenter of the emerging new Texas is Harris County, where Hispanics for the first time outnumber Anglos. Combined with blacks and Asians, minorities now make up more than 60 percent of the nearly 3.9 million people here. Boosted by high Hispanic birthrates, immigration and a flood of Hurricane Katrina refugees from Louisiana, the county in 2005 and 2006 registered the largest increase in minority residents in the nation. It is now tied with Miami-Dade for the nation's second-largest Hispanic population, behind Los Angeles.

In Texas, 43 of the 254 counties are majority-minority. The same patterns are reflected nationwide, with one in 10 counties in that category. Among the nation's most populous counties, the figure is one in three. Previewing future growth, three of the top 10 U.S. counties with the highest percentage of residents below the age of 5 are in Hispanic-dominated Texas counties: Webb, Starr and Hidalgo.

Impressive.