Some booming suburbs, many of them in the Sun Belt, are becoming as racially diverse as major coastal cities — and often with less racial conflict.
Sixty-nine counties, mostly in the South and West, had clear racial majorities in 2010 but lost them by last year, according to a Stateline analysis of census estimates. Nationwide, there are now 152 such counties where no racial group is more than half the population, up 33% since 2010.
Most of the new no-majority counties are in Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia. The counties include many Black residents who have returned to their Southern roots — reversing the Great Migration of the 20th century — as well as Hispanic and Asian residents who, like many white movers, have headed South and West in search of new economic opportunities and more affordable homes.
