The Record (Bergen County, N.J.) (KRT)HACKENSACK, N.J. Fast forward to 2050. Imagine an America where the concept of minority no longer applies to the same ethnic or racial groups as today. Imagine an America where whites are no longer far and away the majority. That is the picture of America drawn by population projections released by the U.S. Census Bureau. The bureau projects that nationwide, Hispanic and Asian populations will triple over the next half-century, and non-Hispanic whites will represent one-half of the total population by 2050. The report does not contain state data. By 2050, the bureau projects, non-Hispanic whites will total 210.3 million, making them 50.1 percent of the overall population, which is expected to rise to 419.9 million. In the 2000 census, this group accounted for 69.4 percent of the U.S. population. Hispanics, on the other hand, are expected to soar to 102.6 million from 35.6 million. If that should occur, they would make up nearly a quarter of all Americans, or double what they do now. The Asian population will see the sharpest increase, Census says, climbing to 33.4 million from 10.7 million in the 2000 count. Their share of the overall population would, like that of Hispanics, double – if the prediction becomes reality. Blacks would also see a gain. The bureau projects they would rise to 61.4 million by 2050. But their share of the general population would grow slightly, to 14.6 percent from the current 12.7. The projections came as no surprise to demographers and leaders of these racial and ethnic groups. For some time, demographers have spoken about a future America that would be less non-Hispanic white and dramatically more multicultural. “This should be embedded in our minds as the conventional wisdom,” said demographer James Hughes of Rutgers University in New Brunswick (NJ). But Hughes, like other demographic experts as well as minority group leaders, warned that projections often have been wrong. Projections long held that Hispanics would surpass blacks to become the nation’s largest minority group by 2005. In fact, it happened last year. The post-World War II baby boom and the great waves of Latin American and Asian immigrants after new immigration laws in 1965 also blindsided the nation, Hughes noted. “The only thing we can predict for certain,” he said, “is that 12 months from now, baby boomers will be one year older.” Factors such as rates of mortality, childbirth and immigration, as well as the economy, could derail the changes that Census believes lie ahead. If the economy tanked and stayed weak, Hughes said, there may be far less incentive for people to migrate here. Another important variable is how people will classify themselves in a country where many Americans increasingly claim multiple ethnic origins and races. Hispanics and Asians, for instance, have a high rate of marrying outside their groups, usually non-Hispanic whites. In New Jersey, weddings in which a family on one side of the aisle speaks Spanish and the one on the other side speaks Italian, for example, are becoming routine. How the children and grandchildren from these intermarriages will identify themselves is anyone’s guess, demographers say. In fact, many demographers believe that the mainstream concept of “white” will expand to include Hispanics. “We may have very different race and ethnicity categories than we do now,”Hughes said.