'Minority-majority' cities

Virginia Latimer has lived in the West Valley City area all 84 years of her life. "It used to be a farming area, and there weren't many minorities at all," she says, and it remained that way when early waves of home building turned it into a suburb.

But recently, a decades-old neighborhood grocery store was converted into one that caters specifically to Hispanics. Signs along roads in town and at stores now often are in Spanish. "When I'm in Harmon's, I notice a lot of signs and products for them (Hispanics)," she says.

That signals how West Valley City, and many of Utah's other largest cities, are cruising toward becoming "minority-majority," or being less than 50 percent white and non-Hispanic.

In fact, West Valley City is now 40.3 percent minority, according to new estimates released Tuesday by the Census Bureau based on polling between 2006 and 2008.

Not far behind are South Salt Lake, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Kearns and Midvale.

Census estimates say that Utah statewide is 17.8 percent minority. But 49 years ago in 1960, it was only 2 percent minority.

"Even 20 years ago, we were just 9 percent racially and ethnically minority," said Utah state demographer Juliette Tennert.

What is fueling the growth in the minority population?

"People have come here for better economic opportunities," said Pam Perlich, a research economist at the University of Utah. "Still we've got an economy that is better than other places."

Tennert said much of the minority growth has come in larger cities along the urban Wasatch Front because "that's where the jobs are." She added that immigrants tend to move "near their family or people who share their cultural background."

So, she said, "If there is a large population (of immigrants) present, you will see more move there. I think that's what's happening in West Valley City, Ogden, South Salt Lake and places with larger" minority populations, Tennert said.

Tennert also notes that immigrants seeking work tend to arrive during their child-bearing years. And, "women minority and ethnic groups tend to have a higher fertility rate," which helps increase the minority population.

Perlich said that Utah is actually even far more diverse than numbers are showing now because refugees and other minorities are often counted in data as "white."

"So in the white population, you've got Iraqis who come with refugee status because people of Middle Eastern descent are usually classified as white. And you're missing people like Serbians and Bosnians," she said. "So it's a lot more diverse than these numbers show."