Mixed Race Fasted Growing Group

President Obama’s pet may not be a “mutt like me,” but people in the nation he leads are increasingly racially mixed. According to the Associated Press, multiracial Americans are the nation’s fastest growing group, reaching 3.4 percent of the population last year at 5.2 million—though census-takers acknowledge that the numbers are likely vastly undercounted. Demographers say the rising public profiles of self-described mixed-race Americans like Obama and golfer Tiger Woods may be impacting the rate at which people self-identify themselves as multiracial. Hawaii has the highest proportion of multiracial citizens, counting nearly 1 in 5 residents as hailing from multiple racial backgrounds. California, Texas, New York, and Florida have the highest numbers of multiracial citizens “due partly to higher populations of second- and later-generation immigrants who ‘marry out.’”