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The electorate that will soon choose the successor to Mayor Richard M. Daley looks a lot different than the voters who first put him in office more than two decades ago.

An analysis of recently released United States Census Bureau estimates by the Chicago News Cooperative shows how racial and ethnic communities have continued to shift dramatically during the past decade in a city long known for its kaleidoscopic population and segregated neighborhoods.

As the mayoral candidates campaign ahead of the Feb. 22 election, campaign strategists determining where they will focus their efforts will have to be mindful of three trends:

The city’s black population fell by about 11 percent between 2000 and 2009, a pattern reflected in many neighborhoods across the South and West Sides. Twenty-four of the 25 city-designated community areas with the largest black populations in 2000 saw declines, according to the analysis of the five-year population estimates for 2005-9.

There was a marked rise in the white population in some of the city’s priciest neighborhoods in and near downtown. In the Near South Side community, the number of whites more than tripled in nine years.

Estimates of the city’s overall white population increased only modestly because of large declines in their numbers on the Northwest and Southwest Sides. Meanwhile, Hispanics continued to supplant whites in the bungalow belt.

When the federal government releases its official 2010 census data in the coming months, it will confirm that every racial and ethnic group in the city is a minority –no single group will make up a majority of Chicago’s roughly 2.85 million residents.

Given Chicago’s election system, which requires the new mayor to garner an outright majority of the vote, the winner will need support from many voters of other races, forcing candidates to seek backing throughout the city. READ MORE