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For the first time, there are more black, Hispanic and other minority babies being born in the United States than white babies, according to government data released on Thursday that confirm a long-growing trend.

U.S. Census Bureau data show the United States is on its way to becoming "majority minority," with almost half of all young children currently from minority groups, including Hispanic, black and Asian.

As of July 1, 2011, 50.4 percent of babies younger than age 1 were minorities or of more than one race, up from 49.5 percent in 2010, the data showed.

Among children younger than age 5, 49.7 percent were a minority or mixed race last year, up from 49.0 percent in 2010, according to the agency, which tracks the U.S. population.

While the country has long been on course to see whites lose their majority, the latest figures make it clear that the next generations of Americans will look far different than today.

The figures are also likely to reignite debate over what it means to be an American in an election year where race, poverty and immigration are emotional campaign issues.

The 197.5 million whites of all ages in the United States still make up nearly two-thirds of the nation, the Census Bureau said. Its data show 36.6 percent of the U.S. population were minorities in 2011 compared to 36.1 percent in 2010.

Some experts on race and ethnicity say current immigrants are far less likely to "melt" into U.S. culture, while others say today's minorities may soon see their heritage blend as whites did. Generations ago there were not "whites" but European groups that were identified as Irish, German, Italian and Greek, among others. READ MORE

The era of the Hispanic homebuyer is upon us, according to the 2011 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report released by the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP). The 36-page document offers an analysis of data on the Hispanic homebuyer market and points to youth, birth rates, household formation, rising purchasing power, labor trends, educational achievements and desire as key indicators that will make Latinos a major purchase force in the first-time homebuyer market.

“Despite recent losses suffered by Hispanics during the housing crisis, young Latino families that were unaffected by foreclosure or lost home values are ready to enter the market,” said Carmen Mercado, president of the 20,000-member group. “When they do, they will have an exponential impact on housing sales.”

According to the report, demographic forces are aligning with Latinos poised to take center stage as a mega force in housing. Latinos filled 1.4 million or 60 percent of the 2.3 million jobs added to the economy in 2011, are expected to account for 40 percent of the estimated 12 million new households over the next 10 years, and their collective purchasing power is expected to jump 50 percent by 2016 – just four short years from now. READ MORE

Hispanic women in the United States, who have generally had the highest fertility rates in the country, are choosing to have fewer children. Both immigrant and native-born Latinas had steeper birthrate declines from 2007 to 2010 than other groups, including non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Asians, a drop some demographers and sociologists attribute to changes in the views of many Hispanic women about motherhood.

As a result, in 2011, the American birthrate hit a record low, with 63 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, led by the decline in births to immigrant women. The national birthrate is now about half what it was during the baby boom years, when it peaked in 1957 at 122.7 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age. READ MORE

A new survey by ING Retirement Research Institute, by Forbes, revealed that Latinos aren't saving for their golden years.

Fifty-four percent of Latinos said that they felt "not very" or "not at all" financially prepared for retirement, a percentage that was higher than that of all other ethnic groups surveyed including African-Americans, whites and Asians.

The question now is why Latinos are not saving more money toward their retirement. While the ING survey reported that about a third of Latinos blamed insufficient income and a quarter pointed to debt as reasons why they haven't been able put more money aside, I think that the Forbes report on the survey was correct to mention that culture also plays a part. READ MORE

While attending the Republican National Convention, I received several emails and messages asking why, as Hispanic, I am a Republican. This question puzzles me a bit, because there is some implied assumption that if you’re Hispanic, by default you are expected to be a Democrat.

However, it seems to me that because of the values in the Hispanic community, it would seem only logical that Hispanics should actually be more aligned with the Republican Party than they would with the Democratic Party. President Ronald Reagan would say, "Hispanics are Republicans, they just don’t realize it yet."

I am a Republican because I believe in conservative values and principles — values such as faith, family and country; principles such as fiscal discipline, limited government and personal responsibility.

I believe most Hispanics also believe in these values. Hispanics overwhelming support the right to life, traditional marriage and parents’ choice in education. They have the highest enlistment rate in the military among ethnic groups.

Hispanics also believe in the principles of hard work and self-sufficiency, not wanting a handout, but a hand up, hoping that their children can realize the American dream. For the most part, Hispanics are not waiting for government to do for them what they can do for themselves. Hispanic entrepreneurs are the fastest-growing segment of small business ownership.

Democrats talk about immigration as though it were the only, or the most important issue, for Hispanic families, when poll after poll shows that immigrations ranks consistently fifth or sixth in level importance behind such issues as jobs, the economy, education and health care. Hispanic issues are not much different than the issues that concern other Americans.

It was the Republican Reagan who brought about the last substantial immigration reform. It was also President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain, both Republicans, who proposed the last major effort to address this issue.

President Obama talks a good talk and promised to submit an immigration bill in his first 90 days in office, yet it has been over 900 days and he has done nothing to address this issue, despite having two years of overwhelming Democratic majorities in the Congress. In his first three and a half years in office, he was responsible for more deportations than any other president. READ MORE

For years, America’s growing and mobile Latino population helped transform cities such as Atlanta and Las Vegas as well as many smaller communities. But the deep recession slowed this great dispersion, a new analysis shows, raising economic and political implications.

Between 2000 and 2010, the nation’s Latino population jumped 43 percent to 50.5 million, growing especially fast throughout the South and in smaller metropolitan areas in the Midwest and Northeast. The Latino populations more than tripled in such places as Palm Coast, Fla.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Wausau, Wis. Job opportunities and an influx of new immigrants from Mexico and Latin America helped drive the boom.

But with the economic downturn that began in 2007, the meltdown of the housing market and a slowdown of new foreign arrivals, many of these same communities have seen the Latino growth rates flatten out. READ MORE

The number of babies born to Hispanics dropped below 1 million in 2010, a nearly 11 percent drop since 2007 that reflects the tough times.

Fewer people of all backgrounds are having babies because of economic concerns, but the sharpest drop is among Hispanics, a booming population that contributes almost a quarter of all U.S. births and half of its population growth.

"Hispanic fertility is dropping like a stone," says Kenneth Johnson, demographer for the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute.

Hispanic birth rates tumbled 17.6 percent in three years — from 97.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 to 80.3 last year, according to preliminary 2010 data released this month by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Non-Hispanic whites still deliver most U.S. births. Their birth rates fell too, but at a much slower pace — down 3.7 percent to 58.7 per 1,000 women in 2010.

Hispanic births in Wisconsin dropped from 6,911 to 6,545 between 2007 and 2010 — a difference of 366 — but because of the overall drop in the state's birthrate, the percentage of Hispanic births to all births remained about the same at 9.56 percent. READ MORE

Latino immigration is reshaping entire neighborhoods throughout the country, and sparking new community trends. The vibrant culture of many of these neighborhoods-- their rich music, art and traditional food from all over Latin America-- has become a lure for thousands of tourists.

Take Visit el Barrio , a campaign promoting Spanish Harlem, also known as El Barrio, as a tourism destination. In promotional video, host Victor Cruz visits restaurants that offer traditional Latino food, art venues -- including museums, galleries and street art -- and nightlife. There are tips on the best salsa clubs and "mojitos" in Spanish Harlem.

New York isn't alone in trying to capitalize on these Latino enclaves. In Chicago, murals depicting Hispanic history and culture have become tourist attractions. In the mostly Mexican neighborhood of Pilsen, monthly walking tours allow visitors to appreciate the art and gain a further understanding of the community's identity, according to Fox News Latino.

Artist Jose Guerrero, who has painted many of the murals, has been leading tours in the Pilsen neighborhood for three decades. According to Fox News Latino, Guerrero said, "Pilsen has always been a spirited neighborhood and doesn't hide its identity." The themes depicted in the murals include immigration, displacement, education, Aztec culture, and Latino historical figures such as Pancho Villa. READ MORE

Unemployment among Latinos remained the same between October and November, while for the general U.S. population it fell to a two-year low, according to the Labor Department.

The Latino jobless rate held at 11.4 percent in November, the same it was in October. The national unemployment rate, however, dropped 0.4 percentage points to 8.6 -- from 9 percent the previous month -- the lowest it's been since March, 2009, during the depths of the recession.

The decline occurred as employers stepped up hiring in response to the slowly improving economy.

For Latinos, the latest unemployment rate was higher than it was during the summer, when it was 11.3 percent, but lower than what is was a year ago, when it was 12.7 percent.

The picture was more bleak for the general population of teenagers, who have an unemployment rate of 23.7 percent. For Latino teenagers, it was significantly higher -- 31.8 percent.

Despite the unemployment decline for the overall U.S. population, the fact remains that 13.3 million Americans remain unemployed. And a key reason the unemployment rate fell so much was because roughly 315,000 people had given up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

The presidential election is less than a year away, which means President Barack Obama will almost certainly face voters with the highest unemployment rate of any president since World War II. Rival Republicans have made the nation's joblessness a key campaign issue.

In July, Republicans launched an anti-Obama media campaign aimed at Latinos in the Southwest. READ MORE

Hispanic children are now the largest group of kids in poverty, marking the first time in U.S. history that poor white children are outnumbered by another race or ethnicity, the Pew Hispanic Center said in a report released on Wednesday.

There were 6.1 million Hispanic children living in poverty in 2010. More than two-thirds of them were born to immigrant parents, although the vast majority of the kids were born in the U.S.

Last year, 37.7 percent of children in poverty were Latino, 30.5 percent were white, and 26.6 percent were black, according to the study. Hispanics make up less than a quarter of children in the United States.

Rapid population growth, high birth rates, and deteriorating economic conditions among Latinos are responsible for the disproportionate percentage of Hispanic kids in poverty, the report said.

The Great Recession of 2007-2009 had a huge impact on the country’s Hispanic population. The unemployment rate among Latinos is 11.1 percent, higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.1 percent. Hispanics’ household wealth fell more sharply than that of black or white households between 2005 and 2009.

While there are a record number of Latino children in poverty, black children have the nation’s highest poverty rate, the report noted. Nearly 40 percent of black children lived in poverty in 2010, compared with 35 percent of Latino children and 12.4 percent of white children. Latino children, however, have seen the steepest increase in poverty rates since 2007. READ MORE

The number of babies born to Hispanics dropped below 1 million in 2010, a nearly 11% drop since 2007 that reflects the tough times.

Fewer people of all backgrounds are having babies because of economic concerns but the sharpest drop is among Hispanics, a booming population that contributes almost a quarter of all U.S. births and half of its population growth.

"Hispanic fertility is dropping like a stone," says Kenneth Johnson, demographer for the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute.

STORY: Hispanic growth outpaced estimates
Hispanic birthrates tumbled 17.6% in three years — from 97.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 to 80.3 last year, according to preliminary 2010 data released this month by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Non-Hispanic whites still deliver most U.S. births. Their birthrates fell too, but at a much slower pace — down 3.7% to 58.7 per 1,000 women in 2010.

The dramatic decline in births to Hispanics, who still have the highest fertility rates, raises the specter of a long-term drop in the nation's overall fertility — now higher than that of most other developed nations. It also crystallizes the impact of the economic downturn on Hispanics.

"It's hard to ignore that Hispanics have been one of the hardest-hit groups," says Gretchen Livingston, senior researcher at the Pew Research Center and author of a recent report on declining birthrates in a down economy. READ MORE

Hispanic households accounted for more than half of the nation's homeowners in the third quarter, evidence of the potential purchasing power of Latinos during the housing recovery.

According to Census Bureau data provided by Alejandro Becerra, former senior housing fellow at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the number of Hispanic owner-occupiers grew by 288,000 from 6.21 million in the second quarter to 6.49 million in the third quarter.

Of 545,000 new household units in the third quarter, 53% were Hispanic households. The remaining 47%, or 257,000 units, consisted of other minority groups and non-Hispanic whites.

"We have to give due cause to Hispanic real estate professionals, to the many nonprofit groups out the that are trying to put into place the foreclosure prevention programs to keep people in their homes, to help new homebuyers," Becerra said. "All this is beginning to bear fruit in reaching out to these households."

Minority households are taking advantage of the lower end of the housing market where, Becerra believes, prices have hit the bottom. "It's the only place where the possibility of buying is right now," he said. READ MORE