For example in 2000 in Utah, Hispanics made up only 9.1 percent of the overall population. By 2007, that had grown to 11.6 percent. In those seven years, the number of Utah Hispanics grew 52.2 percent from about 204,800 to 311,700, according to Deseret News analysis of census estimates.

Still, Juliette Tennert, the Utah state demographer, said while not much research has been done with state-level projections, she says minorities may become the majority a bit more slowly in Utah than nationwide because they are starting from a smaller base here. But, she adds, minorities are indeed growing in Utah and will continue to represent a significant proportion of our population.

Perlich said a root of such growth among minorities in America likely is found in immigration law changes in the 1960s that came as an outgrowth of the civil rights movement. For decades before that, immigration quotas limited who came to America "and it was usually whites from Europe," she said.

Then "we recognized our immigration laws were kind of racist," she said, and they were changed to consider such things as family reunification, work opportunities and needs, and refugee status to allow more immigration beyond old quotas.

She said strong labor markets drew immigrants from every continent. Many also came to Utah and America for universities, for protection as refugees or "because of nice experiences with young missionaries." She notes that many of the new immigrants have higher fertility rates than whites and usually immigrate during child-bearing years.

Velasco said he immigrated because of better chances for work, a better future for his family and a better lifestyle. He also had a sister here, and he liked Utah more than other places such as California that he had visited.

He has been living the American dream since and even recently sold a smaller duplex home to buy a larger single family home.

"It's a great place to live here. Utah is one of the best states for raising children, and I think that's why it has been growing a lot," he said. He said Hispanics from Central America, South America and the Caribbean — all members of his church congregation — often say the same.

That has led, for example, to big growth in the Spanish-speaking LDS Church congregations that he has attended here.

"When I first came here 13 years ago, there was one big (Spanish-speaking) ward that covered the area from Redwood Road to Magna, and from 21st South to West Jordan," he said. Congregations where he has lived have since been divided eight times for growth.

Velasco is now president of a church branch covering a much smaller area, between about 4400 West and 4800 West, and from 3500 South to about 4500 South.

Perlich adds that the census projections for growth of minorities tell only part of the diversity tale. She said many people who are counted as "white" actually represent new, diverse cultures, too — from Bosnians to Greeks, Serbs and Middle Easterners. "The vast mix of cultures that is occurring is unprecedented and will be interesting," she said.

The new census projections also show that not only will America become much more diverse by 2050, it will be much older, too.

By 2030, when all the baby boomers will be 65 or older, about one of every five U.S. residents is expected to be a senior citizen. The number of senior citizens is expected to more than double from 2008 to 2050.

Perlich notes that projections from state data show that Utahns over age 60 will actually outnumber schoolchildren by 2040. In Salt Lake County that is expected to happen 10 years earlier, in 2030.

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com