Half of newcomers here are minorities

In the years since the 2000 census, the state of Washington has added more than 500,000 new residents.

More than half were people of color.

Nationally, "we're dealing with a bigger population and one's that's more diverse and dispersed throughout the country," said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

"Everyone's getting a taste of this new minority."

To be sure, Washington state remains ... well, pretty white, with whites representing 77 percent of the state's overall population, according to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau today.

Driven largely by immigration, the slowly increasing diversity here mirrors what has been happening to one degree or another across the U.S., where 1 in every 3 people identifies as being other than white.

Nationwide, people of color numbered 100 million in 2006, representing a third of the U.S. population of 300 million. Latinos across the country, as well as here in Washington state, represented the biggest and fastest-growing minority group.

Frey said that while "diversity adds a kind of cultural vibrancy" to cities like Seattle, "we shouldn't make it sound like every neighborhood is a rainbow community. There are still places in this country that are still pretty white."

Diversity is coming to Washington at a slower pace than the nation as a whole.

Among the state's estimated 6.4 million residents, 23 percent — or 1.5 million people — described themselves as of a race other than white, compared to 20 percent six years earlier.

Washington's minority population ranks it in the middle among the 50 states — right there with Arkansas, Tennessee and Connecticut. Frey considers a population with 25 percent minority to be "reasonably diverse."

In reaching mid-decade population estimates, the Census Bureau considers such factors as natural growth (births minus deaths) and international migration.

Contributing to the demographic trends in Washington and nationwide are low birth rates among whites and increased immigration from Latin America and across Asia. As a key destination state for refugees, Washington also draws immigrants from throughout East Africa.

And, the state's "liberal" politics make it attractive to nonwhites, particularly Latinos from the Southwest United States, said Gary Perry, a sociology professor at Seattle University.

Mark Ellis, a University of Washington professor and expert on race and ethnic projections, said the state's growing diversity is reflected in a preliminary list of next fall's freshman class at the University of Washington. He said that list has a racial makeup of around 40 percent nonwhite.

"It's slowly recovering from the dip that took place following" the end of affirmative-action in admissions in the late 1990s, Ellis said.

Statistics aside, demography experts agree that Washington as a whole — and Seattle in particular — don't have a diverse feel overall.

"The neighborhoods north of the Ship Canal are pretty lily-white," Ellis said.

Blacks, traditionally the face of diversity, have historically been represented in small numbers in this state. There are far fewer blacks in the state than Asians and Latinos, and blacks have seen the slowest growth over time.

Ellis and other college professors here describe losing promising minority students, particularly black students, to universities in parts of the country considered more diverse.

Likewise, the absence of a significant black population is often a disincentive to some young professionals to move here, and to stay once they are here, Perry said.

"I'm constantly having conversations with young black people about whether they should stay or go."

Part of that, he said, has to do with how some cities, including Seattle, market themselves. "Seattle is branded as a white city in a way that's not appealing to blacks who might come here."

Seattle Times researcher Gene Balk contributed to this report.

Lornet Turnbull: 206-464-2420 or lturnbull@seattletimes.com