Hispanics 2nd Largest Group In Big Apple

Hispanics have overtaken blacks as the second-largest racial or ethnic group in New York City.

A report Monday by the Taub Urban Research Center of New York University said the city’s whites, still the largest category, continued to decline. Asian-Americans showed the most rapid growth.

The study also said about 34 percent of the city’s residents are immigrants. The report put the city’s population in 1996 at 7.23 million, a decline of 85,000 since the 1990 census.

Of that number, 38.5 percent were non-Hispanic white; 26.6 percent Hispanic; 26.2 percent non-Hispanic black; and 8.7 percent Asian.

In 1990, the city was 43.4 percent white, 25.4 percent black, 24.5 percent Hispanic and 6.7 percent Asian. The center estimated the figures based on a survey conducted for New York City last year by the U.S. Census Bureau.