The simple math that should keep Republicans up at night Add to list

Washington Post logoThe most common age of Hispanics in America is 11. For whites? 58.

Two demographic trends are expected to reshape the United States over the next 30 years. One is that the average age of Americans will creep steadily upward. The other is that the density of white Americans as a percentage of the population will slip steadily downward.

On Tuesday, we got a vivid reminder of the existence of those two trends, courtesy of analysis from the Pew Research Center. Pew’s Katherine Schaeffer looked at Census Bureau age data by race and ethnicity and came to a startling realization.

The most common age in the United States is 27, a function of the population boom that marked the millennial generation and of the natural effects of the baby boomers getting older. But that most-common age is not the same across racial or ethnic groups. Among black Americans, the most common age is 27, as it is for nonwhite Americans overall. The most common age among whites?

Fifty-eight.

View the complete July 30 article by Philip Bump on The Washington Post website here.