State Population Growing More Diverse

Washington remains overwhelmingly white but has seen faster growth of racial and ethnic minority populations over the past five years, new figures from state demographers showed Monday.

The state’s overall population grew 11.5 percent from 1990 to 1995, to about 5.43 million, demographers with the State Office of Financial Management said.

The proportion of racial minorities and people of Hispanic origin increased from 9.4 percent of the population to 11.4 percent during the period, the demographers said in a report.

The biggest rate of growth occurred among Asians and Pacific Islanders. From 1990 to 1995, their population rose from 215,545 to 323,179, an increase of 49.9 percent.

The next biggest rate of growth occurred among Hispanics, the data showed. That population increased from 214,570 to 310,343 from 1990 to 1995, a rise of 44.6 percent.

The population of blacks increased from 152,572 to 187,294, an increase of 22.7 percent. The population of Indian, Eskimo and Aleut people expanded from 87,259 to 106,919, a 22.5 percent gain, the report showed.

The number of whites rose from 4.41 million to 4.8 million during the period. The growth rate was 9.1 percent.