One-third of northwest arkansas is now non-white
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The share of nonwhite populations in Benton and Washington counties jumped significantly in the past decade, now making up roughly a third of the region. BY THE NUMBERS: As of 2020, Benton
and Washington counties were 32.6% and 34.7% nonwhite respectively, according to census data released last week. * Those figures are up from 23.4% (Benton) and nearly 26% (Washington) a
decade ago. * Compare that to four decades ago, when only 2.4% of Benton County's population and 3.3% of Washington County's population were nonwhite. WHY IT MATTERS:
America's identity is shifting with its population, writes Axios' Stef. W. Kight. * White, non-Hispanic Americans now account for less than six in 10 people in the U.S. — a more
precipitous drop over the past decade than experts expected — and they're no longer the racial-ethnic majority in 13% of U.S. counties. OF NOTE: We pointed out yesterday that
populations of all people declined in Arkansas' rural east and southeastern counties in the past decade. Those same counties — Phillips, Lee and St. Francis, for example — have the
highest nonwhite populations in the state, according to census data.