NEW YORK, March 7 (UPI) -- The racial make-up of the United States is changing, with white populations diminishing in major cities, and non-whites moving where the jobs are.
A Brookings Institution report studying the population shift between 2000 and 2004 found the white population declined in 111 of 361 metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, USA Today reported.
Demographer William Frey, the author of the report, said aging whites are gravitating toward smaller communities such as St. George, Utah, and Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
The report said blacks are gravitating less to the "Old South" states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and more to "New South" job hubs in Texas, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida where there are better employment opportunities.
Four of the metropolitan areas showing the fastest growth in Hispanics are in Florida, the report said.
Among the nation's 88 metropolitan areas with half a million or more people, New York, Houston and Honolulu each have a proportion of blacks, Hispanics and Asians that exceeds their share of the national population, the New York Times reported.
