The face of Wyoming is changing, slowly but steadily, according to Wyoming’s Principal Economist Wenlin Liu, who says the state will continue to see ethnic diversity as people move here to work. There has been a 17-percent increase in all ethnic groups between 2010 and 2013. Meanwhile, white population growth was only a little over one percent.
Liu says minority populations are also keeping the median age lower than the national average by as much as a year.
“The minorities are relatively much younger than the white population,” Liu says. “And also the minority population, their fertility rate is higher than the white population. That’s why our median age did not increase.”
Nationally, the median age is 37.6. But in Wyoming, it’s only 36.8. Liu says the Census Bureau predicts that, nationally, the white population will dip below 50 percent by 2043.