| Description |
Immigrants and Minorities Contribute Significantly to Growth The Utah population is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse primarily because of recent large flows of international immigrants to the state in combination with the regions of origin, minority status, and relatively high fertility rates of many of these new arrivals. Although immigrants have come from all continents to Utah, about three quarters of immigrants coming to Utah during the 1990s were Latin Americans, most of these persons are Hispanics, and many are Mexican. Utah's population grew by about half a million in the 1990s. About three fifths of this increase was natural increase (the amount by which births exceed deaths), about one fifth was net in-migration from other states, and about one fifth was from immigration. The latter can be measured several ways, including changes in the foreign born population - which increased by over 100,000 in the 1990s. Minorities contributed 35 percent of the state's population growth in the 1990s; this share is estimated to have increased to 41 percent from 2000 to 2004 |
