Latinos, Asians spur growth

Driven by surging numbers of Latinos and Asians, California's population swelled 10 percent over the last decade, while the San Fernando Valley is on pace to see 5 percent growth, according to new census figures released Tuesday. | Read the report.

From 2000 to 2010, the number of Latinos grew by 28 percent to 14 million in the nation's most populous state, while Asians increased by about 31 percent to 4.8 million. In contrast, non-Hispanic whites decreased by 5 percent, and the black population dipped by 1 percent.

Los Angeles County grew by 3.1 percent to more than 9.8 million, while the population of the city of Los Angeles increased by 2.6 percent to reach 3.8 million.

The county's relatively low growth rates likely will cost the area one seat in Congress and one seat in the state Assembly in the upcoming decennial redistricting, according to Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, who was keeping a close watch on the data.

An official census breakout for the Valley will not be released for several weeks.

However, Sherman said the population of his 27th District and Rep. Howard Berman's 28th District - which stretch from Burbank to Pierce College in Woodland Hills - grew by 5.1 percent.

"Our two districts offer a strong window to the Valley," Sherman said.

The total population of

those two districts is 1.4 million, with the increase largely due to growth of Hispanics and other minorities. Previous estimates by the census have pegged the Valley's population at over 1.76 million.

The Latino population expanded from 46.5 percent to 49.9 percent in those two districts. The Asian population grew from 8.2 percent to 9.6 percent. The number of African-Americans rose by 4.2 percent.

"We didn't grow as fast as the state but we grew faster than the city or the county," said Sherman, who believes that growth will assure that the Valley will not lose any of its political representation.

"Los Angeles needed to grow by 951,000 to maintain all of its representation, and, unfortunately, it didn't."

Meanwhile, demographers were having a field day Tuesday concluding that California's historic leveling out means the state has lost its lure as a growth magnet.

For the first time in it history, California did not gain any seats in Congress, and William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., offered this gloomy prediction: "It may never again gain another congressional seat."

The census data showed that Los Angeles had the slowest population growth since between 1890 and 1900.

"Clearly, this is California's slowest rate of growth in its history as a state and its lowest numeric gain since the '30s," said Frey.

California's new population total is 37.3 million, up from 33.9 million in 2000, according to the census.

Los Angeles County has a population of 9,818,605, and the city has a population of 3,792,621.

According to demographers, the reason for the slower growth in Los Angeles was the accompanying decline in growth among Hispanics, as many of them moved elsewhere.

The Hispanic population in Los Angeles County grew by less than 11 percent between 2000 and 2010.

By contrast, in Sonoma County the Latino population exploded by 52 percent over the 10-year period and now makes up a fourth of the residents.

Even with the slower growth, California continues to anchor a westward shift from the Midwest as America's new population center, demographers said.

In California, Hispanics and others have been lured to the lower costs of housing in inland areas of the state - so much so that for the last four decades, inland areas have been growing at a faster rate than coastal areas.

Still, California would have lost population if it weren't for growth among Hispanics and other minorities, according to the census figures.

New census data shows Latinos and Asians accounted for virtually all of California's population surge over the last decade.

The Hispanic population grew by 28 percent and Asians increased by 31 percent.

Non-Hispanic whites saw their numbers decrease between 2000 and 2010 by 5 percent, and the state's African-American population dropped by 1 percent.

Demographers say Hispanics are growing faster than other groups because most Latinos are of child-bearing age while the rest of the population tends to be older.

Still, the lure California had from the Gold Rush days through the 20th Century has been stolen by surrounding states.

The West is now home to the four fastest-growing states - Nevada, Arizona, Utah and Idaho - and has surpassed the Midwest in population, according to 2010 figures.

"This is a window into the future of America," said Dowell Myers, an urban planning and demography professor at the University of Southern California.

But Myers also saw a silver lining in California's slower growth.

"Maybe it's good that California's population did not grow more, because at a time with big budget problems having a steady state that's not a boom state might make it more manageable to dig ourselves out of," he said.

Robert Lang, a sociology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the West had become "dominant in population growth but also as a swing point in American politics."

That landmark shift, he said, will ultimately see a changing of the guard in the country's politics and even the traditional notion of the country's heartland - long the symbol of mainstream American beliefs and culture.

"The geography is clearly shifting," Lang said, "with the West beginning to emerge as America's new heartland."

Michelle Trachtenberg Laura Harring Thora Birch Julia Stiles Amanda Marcum