DFW International reports that 44 percent of North Texans were either born in another country or are children of parents born in another country.
I don’t believe it. But I don’t have the facts or the time to find the facts to contradict it. So click the link, and you decide for yourself.
Top countries of origin represented in Dallas-Fort Worth are Mexico (natch) at 1,000,000 (even if I don’t believe the 44 percent, that estimate seems low), El Salvador and India at 100,000, Vietnam at 80,000, China at 60, 000, Pakistan and Korea at 50,000. Poland — who knew? — comes in at 40,500.
Last month we introduced you to the News’ very neat interactive map, which shows how African American growth has jumped in the Dallas suburbs. Two demographers have now done the research nationwide. Of the top 10 metro areas, Dallas ranks last in segregation — by a wide margin. Of the top 50 metro areas, Dallas ranks 32nd and Fort Worth ranks 30th.
The authors note that the RustBelt cities of the North “have been the most resistant to change.” Walter Russel Mead sees a pattern:
Blacks across the North are fleeing the urban paradises of liberal legislation and high public union membership for the benighted suburbs…The failure of blue social policy to create an environment which works for Blacks is the most devastating possible indictment of the 20th century liberal enterprise in the United States.
But we more than made up for it by stealing 1,180 people (net) from LA. Unfortunately, the people moving to Dallas from LA were poorer ($25,300) than the Dallas people moving to NYC ($86,200). Fort Worth netted 23 people from Manhattan at $93,800. The 260 New Yorkers who moved to Dallas made an average of $100,000. (I think I may envy those 20 Dallas people who moved to Missoula County, Montana.)
All this and more is detailed on a splenderferous interactive map at Forbes. Thanks to a good, solid, ever-watchful FrontBurnervian for the tip.
The News ran an excellent piece on Sunday about black suburban growth. A new interactive map from the Texas Tribune of Texas legislative districts allows us to see how dramatically this is playing out. John Carona, for example, represents District 16, which includes Dallas and most of the inner suburbs. His district saw a frightening — for me — 17 percent decline in white population. Interestingly, it also showed a 3.5 percent decline in black population. Now let’s jump to Florence Shapiro’s northern District 8.
Last week, I noted that Dallas-area personal income had declined 5 percent during the 2000’s. Rice University’s Steve Murdoch says it is only the beginning of a long downward trend. The surge in Hispanic population (only 6 percent of which is undocumented or illegal, choose your term) will result in 15 percent decline in Anglo children in the public school system and a 213 percent increase in Hispanic children.
Unless the trend line changes, 30 percent of the state’s labor force will not have even a high school diploma by 2040, he said. And the average household income will be about $6,500 lower than it was in 2000. That figure is not inflation adjusted so it will be worse than what it sounds.
Compounding the problem, in my view, is a political system that rewards short-term thinking and posturing rather than preparing for the future. If voters judged mainly on performance and results, for example, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — constitutionally, the most powerful state official — would not even be able to show his face in public. Instead, he is regarded as the frontrunner in next year’s U. S. Senate race.
A Frontburnervian points me to this estimate made last year by the North Texas Council of Governments that the 2010 Dallas population was 1, 316,350. The U.S. Census figures just out — and shown on another page of the NTCOG site –puts that number officially at 1,197,816.
So what happened to the other 118,534 people? Was I out of town when the Rapture happened?