{"id":36,"date":"2012-06-28T18:10:22","date_gmt":"2012-06-28T22:10:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/?p=36"},"modified":"2012-06-30T10:43:18","modified_gmt":"2012-06-30T14:43:18","slug":"story-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/story-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Boston Sees Demographic Shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Giovanni Carcamo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s demographic makeup has changed dramatically over the past 25 years, with significant increases in the Asian and Hispanic populations.<\/p>\n

In the 1980s, Boston was majority white, only 20 percent black. For years the city suffered from severe racial tensions.<\/p>\n

But by 2010 it was a city transformed. No group had a clear majority and neighborhoods had been reshaped by people from countries such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic and China.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemographics have changed dramatically from the past two decades,\u201d said Kevin Peterson, co-director of the New Democracy Coalition. \u201cThe majority (has realigned to include) Haitian, Latinos, and African. I believe this diversity has made Boston a better city,\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the US Census, Boston\u2019s total population increased less than 10 percent over the past 25 years, from 562,994 in 1980 to 617,594 in 2010.<\/p>\n

But the arrangement of the city\u2019s residents has changed far more significantly. In 1980, Boston was 68 percent white, 22 percent black, six percent Hispanic and three percent Asian, according to the Boston Redevelopment Authority.<\/p>\n

By 2010, the white population had declined to 47 percent, while the black population remained stable. Latinos, however, soared to 18 percent of the city\u2019s population, while Asians rose to nine percent.<\/p>\n

Immigration is fueling much of the population shift, adding new cultures and languages to the city. The percent of foreign born has grown so much that the numbers are approaching the historic rate of the mid to late 1800s, when there was an influx of Irish, Italians and other\u00a0 European groups into the city.<\/p>\n

In 1980, immigrants made up less than 20 percent of the city\u2019s population, but by 2010, they make up nearly 30 percent of the city. One of the most transformed neighborhoods is East Boston, where the demographics have shifted. It began with a majority of white population, typically the descendants of Italian immigrants. It\u2019s now 52.8 percent Latino, according to the Boston Globes Your Town website, which tracks the data.<\/p>\n

A Boston Redevelopment Authority report on South Boston, which was known as the most segregated neighborhood, shows in 2010 there was an increase with African-Americans and Asians. African Americans in this area had an increase of 107.9 percent. Increase was 40.9 percent.<\/p>\n

In Boston today, immigrants are mainly coming from Latin America the Caribbean, Asia and Europe, with significant numbers also coming from African nations such as Somalia, according to Census data.<\/p>\n

The city\u2019s demographic shift is even more vivid in schools, where the biggest group of students is Latino \u2013 at 43 percent of the 55,000 students. The next largest group is African-American at 33.7 percent. White students, once the majority, are now only 12.6 percent. Asians are 8 percent, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Giovanni Carcamo Boston\u2019s demographic makeup has changed dramatically over the past 25 years, with significant increases in the Asian and Hispanic populations. In the 1980s, Boston was majority white, only 20 percent black. For years the city suffered from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boston","category-full"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehsjc.org\/quarterly\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}