WASHINGTON
America’s growing diversity has reached nearly every state. From South Carolina’s budding immigrant population to the fast-rising number of Hispanics in Arkansas, minority groups make up an increasing share of the population in every state but one, according figures released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
“This is just an extraordinary explosion of diversity all across the United States,” says William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. think tank. “It’s diversity and immigration going hand in hand.”
West Virginia is the exception, with its struggling economy and little history of attracting immigrants.
Frey says states that attract large numbers of immigrants can consider it a “badge of economic success.” There have, however, been backlashes.
“In some places it will be awhile before they are accepted by the locals,” he says. “All we have to do is look at this immigration debate.”
