TEXAS — Diverse populations were studied in each of the 50 states in America by WalletHub and ranked. With Texas’ large Hispanic and Latin community, it came in at No. 2 in the study’s “Most & Least Diverse States in the U.S.”
California was given the No. 1 ranking, reasonably so, as its Hispanic and Latin population is just as robust as Texas’. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, California shows approximately 40.3% and Texas, 40.2%, for that population group.
Non-Hispanic whites are expected to no longer be the single ethnic majority in America by 2045, said the U.S. Census Bureau.
“We can already see signs of change just by looking at the past decade. Between the censuses in 2010 and 2020, the diversity index, or the chance that two randomly-chosen Americans would be from different racial and ethnic groups, rose from 54.9% to 61.1%,” WalletHub wrote in its study.
Since Texas and California border Mexico, many Hispanics and Latinos have defaulted to migrate toward those states. Tejanos, descendents of Spanish, Native American and other groups, have been linked to Texas’ history since the 1700s. In 2010, history experts said that 45% of Texas residents had Hispanic ancestry, which included immigrants from Mexico, Central America, and South America, as well as Tejanos.
For this study, the following key dimensions were used to determine results: 1) Socio-economic diversity, 2) Cultural diversity, 3) Economic diversity, 4) Household diversity, 5) Religious diversity and 6) Political diversity. WalletHub didn’t just explore racial diversity, they also looked at cultures, religions, economic statuses, educational backgrounds and other characteristics.
Here's how Texas did in the other areas:
- Socio-economic diversity: 9
- Cultural diversity: 6
- Economic diversity: 13
- Household diversity: 28
- Religious diversity: 3
- Political diversity: 39
The U.S. Census Bureau reported the population of Hispanics and Latinos in Texas overtook that of non-Hispanic whites in July 2022.