Underrepresented in Medicine and the ethnicity breakdown in the US

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Adapt

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US POPULATION GROUPS in the US out of 284.4 million people
Whites - 70%

Hispanics - 13%

Blacks - 12.7%

Asians - 4%

Given that there are many Asian and white doctors, you can see why they are not necessarily underrepresented in medicine. This is of course relative to blacks and hispanics. Actually, looking at the numbers, whites could be considered underrepresented in medicine since they make up so much of the patient population. :laugh:

Hispanics make up the largest minority now at 37 million surpassing the number of blacks. By 2050, hispanics are expected to number around 100 million. The following excerpt was taken from the article.

Hispanics become largest US minority


There are now 37 million Hispanics in the US

Hispanics have become the largest minority in the US, according to newly released government figures.
For the first time, there are now more Hispanics than Black Americans - 37 million Hispanics, compared to 36 million blacks, says the United States Census Bureau.

US POPULATION GROUPS
Whites - 70%

Hispanics - 13%

Blacks - 12.7%

Asians - 4%


Hispanics comprise nearly 13% of the US population which has now hit 284.4 million people, according to the figures.

Observers say the trend is likely to continue because of higher birth rates and increased immigration from Latin American countries.

Census Bureau demographer Roberto Ramirez said it has long been expected that Hispanics would some day surpass blacks.

"And the trend shows it will clearly be increasing more in the future," Mr Ramirez said.

Demographers had already been surprised by the fast growth rate of the Hispanic community when the last official census was taken in 2000.

Faster increase

The number of Hispanics rose 4.7% between 2000 and 2001 while the black population increased by just 2%.

Asians are the next largest minority group after blacks and Hispanics, at about 12.1 million, or 4% of the population, while the native American population rose 1.5% to 4.3 million.


Many Mexicans takes huge risks to enter the US

Whites remained the largest single population group, numbering about 199.3 million in July 2001, nearly 70% of all US residents.

The overall population rose 3.4% from 281.4 million in April 2000, according to the bureau.

The estimates are the Census Bureau's first statistics on race and ethnicity since the results from the 2000 census were released.

Leaving Mexico

Some two-thirds of the Hispanic community is of Mexican origin and correspondents say they take extraordinary risks in order to enter the US.

The latest fatality figures for illegal migrants show that since last October, more than 20 have died trying to get across the border.

The BBC's David Willis in Los Angeles says that many of those who do make it end up doing manual or menial tasks in order to earn a living.

Every day throughout Los Angeles, he says, hundreds are to be found outside home improvement stores offering their services in return for the minimum hourly wage.

Many parts of the city have become heavily reliant on their labour.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2682027.stm

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So who thinks whites should be underrepresented also. If they make up 70% of the US population, there are way more white patients then white doctors. This disproportionality must be fixed. Affirmative Action for whites. :D
 
living in la, i could never fully appreciate that blacks and hispanics represent only about 26% of the population...very little comapared to whites. la rocks!
 
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what do you guys think about asian representation? in medicine, there are so many asian docs...
 
docmemi said:
living in la, i could never fully appreciate that blacks and hispanics represent only about 26% of the population...very little comapared to whites. la rocks!
I read an article that said Hispanics make up about 35% of the population in Los Angeles. It also said by 2020, hispanics will make up 50% in Los Angeles. Now that's a fast reproductive rate. You know that we means. We may have to know Spanish just to survive in the city and work as a physician. :laugh:
 
docmemi said:
what do you guys think about asian representation? in medicine, there are so many asian docs...

Not on TV!!! :D
 
Adapt said:
I read an article that said Hispanics make up about 35% of the population in Los Angeles. It also said by 2020, hispanics will make up 50% in Los Angeles. Now that's a fast reproductive rate. You know that we means. We may have to know Spanish just to survive in the city and work as a physician. :laugh:

we need to know spanish as it is now! 35% for hispanics is a lot!

thats why la is so cool. its a true melting pot. so diverse.
 
I'm sorry I had it wrong. The following is the breakdown in Los Angeles.

Race

White 38.2%

Hispanic 39.0%

Black 13.4%

Native American 0.3%

Asian 8.8%

Other 0.3%

I didn't know hispanics were the majority and there were so few Asians. :eek:

For anyone interested I got the information here:

http://www.atkinsresearchinc.com/demographics.htm#race
 
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm.../20040430/ap_on_re_us/asians_population_surge

Asian Population Surging Across America

FALLS CHURCH, Va. - Asians are projected to be the fastest-growing major population category over the next half-century, outpacing blacks, whites and Hispanics. Recent Census Bureau (news - web sites) projections show the Asian population could grow by a third, to 14 million, by 2010 and more than triple to 33 million in 2050.


AP Photo


Related Links
? Asian Population in U.S. in 2050 (AP)



Immigrants from India and Vietnam contributed to the population surge during the 1990s. That's when the Eden Center strip mall took hold in Falls Church, Va., about nine miles west of the nation's capital.


On a recent weekday afternoon, shoppers strolled down the corridors and sidewalks of the 120-shop mall with bags and children in hand. A group of older men huddled around a table watching two others play a game of Chinese chess, while some visitors perused videos at a rental store. The yellow-and-red striped flag of the former South Vietnam fluttered high above the parking lot, next to an American flag.


The scents of herbs and spices waft out of a Vietnamese medicine store, down a hall and past a restaurant where diners sip tea and eat bowls of pho. Pulsing Vietnamese music plays in the background.


It's a scene out of Hanoi ? but it's really a suburban Washington strip mall that has become a hub for the burgeoning Vietnamese community and an example of what's happening elsewhere in the country.


"A good bit of it reminds me of home," Nguyen Ngoc Bich, 67, says as he strolls past the shops. Bich, a former Vietnamese diplomat who settled in the United States as a refugee in 1975 after the Vietnam War, was one of the mall's original investors.


"Just close your eyes and all you hear around is Vietnamese being spoken. It's all the familiar sounds of home," he said.


Like previous immigrant groups, many Asians come to America looking for a better job, more education or to reunite with relatives and friends.


Asians in America still concentrate in urban areas, but as with other minorities, are increasing in number in the suburbs and rural areas. A place like Eden Center serves as a gathering place similar to New York's Chinatown neighborhood, says Min Zhou, chair of the Asian American Studies program at the University of California at Los Angeles.


"It's a cultural hub and some sort of buffer" for those immigrants who live or work in mainly white areas, Zhou said. "You don't need it, but if you have it, it makes your life much more richer."


Asians with a Chinese background are the largest single group, with 2.4 million. But the population of Indian-Americans grew the most during the 1990s ? 106 percent to 1.7 million. Vietnamese were next at 83 percent and grew to 1.1 million in 2000.


The technology boom of the 1990s lured many immigrants from India. Large numbers settled in California's Silicon Valley and other high-tech hotbeds like the Dulles Corridor outside Washington.


A catch-all category of "other Asians" had 1.3 million people in 2000. This included groups like the Hmong, whose population nearly doubled to 169,000. The Hmong are an ethnic group from the highlands of Laos who fought the communists alongside the CIA (news - web sites) during the Vietnam War.


Many of the Vietnamese and Hmong came to America as political refugees. And a large number are children of U.S. soldiers stationed in southeast Asia during the Vietnam War.


Growth has occurred beyond traditional gateways like New York and California. Towns along the Gulf of Mexico have for years attracted immigrant fishermen from Vietnam and Cambodia, and resettlement programs have created large Hmong refugee communities in Minnesota and Wisconsin.


There are numerous ripple effects. Many localities have created community outreach positions to learn about the needs of these new populations.


More businesses and strip malls like Eden Center are sprouting across the country, as more Asian families settle outside of cities. One such mall in Las Vegas, called Chinatown Plaza, bills itself as the "largest master-planned Chinatown in America."





Varun Nikore heads the Indian American Leadership Initiative, an organization that seeks to entice more Indian Americans into politics, an area that Nikore calls a "last slice of the American pie."

Out of the more than 1.7 million people of Indian descent in the United States, only a handful are in politics and none are higher than state legislative office, Nikore says.

"They're involved in cultural programs, and they are politically aware, but they haven't done the extra hurdle of trying to run for office," Nikore says. "We're basically trying to take the mystery out of the campaign process."

Whether projections about Asian population growth hold true depends largely on any changes to U.S. immigration policy, demographers note. They also suggest that improving economic conditions in Asian countries could reduce the number of people moving to America.
 
Darkcity. Interesting article. I think hispanics are the fastest growing ethnicity, but even so, the article said by 2050 there will be 33 million Asians. However, in 2004 there are already 37 million hispanics so by 2050, even if the two populations grow at the same rate, hispanics will still far outnumber Asians. It's cool either way. I'm half filipino and half hispanic so it's all good.:D
 
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