More White Americans are dying than being born for first time in history: Census

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that for the first time in history, more white, non-Hispanic Americans are dying than being born. The new statistic shows just how important minorities will be to the U.S. in the coming decades.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the report estimates that the number of deaths in the largest ethnic group in the country exceeded the number of births by around 12,400 in the year that ended on June 2012.

Demographer Kenneth Johnson of the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute showed that even in 2010-2011, the number of births outpaced deaths by 29,600. According to USA Today, the country only saw a growth in the white population between June 2011-June 2012 because of immigration, which made up for the gap.

Johnson termed the study’s “stunning” findings as the first “natural decrease” for whites in U.S. history. “Even during the great influenza epidemic of 1919, there was no white 'natural decrease,’” Johnson wrote.

According to Bloomberg other stunning findings in the estimates include that 49.9 percent of children under 5 in the U.S. are minorities and the minority population jumped 21 times faster than the white population.

The Asian population jumped by 2.9 percent, while the Hispanic population was up 2.2 percent. Blacks were up 1.3 percent, while whites were only up 0.1 percent.

William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, believes that the next few decades will be “almost an inversion of the 20th century, when the white middle class was the engine of our demographic and economic growth.” He added that white retirees “will be on the receiving end of an economy which will be fueled largely by the efforts of Hispanics, blacks and Asians.”