Minorities living in the Chicago area will become the majority by 2020, according to a new report.
One of the driving factors for the shift comes from the suburbs, according to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning. The minority share in suburban Cook County grew from 33-percent to 45-percent since 2010.
The CMAP region consists of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, and Will counties.
Analysts found the size of Asian and Latino populations in the Chicago area has grown while the number of African-American and white residents dipped.
Nearly 19-percent of the population studied in the CMAP report was made of black or African-American residents in 2000. Between 2010 and 2014, that percentage dropped to 17.1-percent, according to CMAP.
A similar drop can be seen among white residents. In 2000, about 57-percent of the region’s population was white, according to the study. Between 2010 and 2014, the number of white residents fell to 52.5%.
The Hispanic or Latino population now makes up the second largest population group in the region, according to the CMAP study.
