The narrative surrounding the dramatic demographic shifts in the U.S. that The Next America covers starts with a dominant white, aging population that gives way to a young, diverse cohort.
The changes had been happening slowly but steadily. Then, between 2004, when George Bush was reelected, and 2008, when Barack Obama handily defeated Sen. John McCain for president, becoming the first African-American president in U.S. history, something happened. Traditionally red states started turning purple. Minority and youth voters came out in droves. Demographers and experts alike who had been predicting generational shifts between the gray and the brown for quite some time were getting more attention.
Now, using raw population data released by the Census Bureau, we’ve mapped these shifts of the voting-age population and the ensuing changes between non-Hispanic white shares and, well, everyone else.Â