From 2000 to 2018, 109 counties in 22 states went from majority white to majority nonwhite according to a Pew Research Center analysis. Our own Clark County was among those crossing that threshold, going from 61% non-Hispanic white to just 42% in 18 years.
Overall, 293 U.S. counties were majority nonwhite in 2018. Most of these counties are concentrated in California, the South and on the East Coast, with few in the country’s middle section. While Clark County’s shift of 19 percentage points was the highest in the southwest, it was tied for 17th-highest in the nation over the study period. There were even larger changes in states like Georgia, Virginia, Florida, and Texas.
In 21 of the 25 biggest U.S. counties by population, nonwhite groups together make up more than half of residents. Eight of these counties were majority white in 2000 but are no longer: San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Sacramento (all in California), plus Clark (Nevada), Broward (Florida), Tarrant (Texas) and Wayne (Michigan).
And more could be on the way: Fairfax County, Virginia (total of 1.2 million), Pima County, Arizona (1 million), Milwaukee County, Wisconsin (948,000) and Cobb County, Georgia (757,000) all had populations that were less than 52% white in 2018.
Looking the other way, from 2000 to 2018 just two counties went from minority white to majority white: Calhoun County in South Carolina and West Feliciana Parish in Louisiana, each with relatively small populations of about 15,000.
