Nearly 25 Percent of Children Younger Than 5 Are Latino, Census Says

The shifts in focus and resources that local school systems make to address the needs of growing Latino and immigrant populations can arouse concern and resentment among other residents, said Audrey Singer, a researcher with the Brookings Institution who has studied new immigrant gateway states.

"Schools are often on the frontline for debate in communities because they are on the leading edge of change," Singer said. "People who might not otherwise have an opinion take notice when the schools begin to change."

Yet the increasing number of Latino youths might enrich mainstream U.S. culture in unexpected ways, Singer said.

"A lot of popular culture comes from youth culture, and we already see the effect of the newest demographic waves in current music and new media," she said.

The rise in the Latino population has been accompanied by significant, if slower, growth among African Americans and Asians. Minorities account for one-third of the U.S. population, a similar portion of Virginia's population and 42 percent of Maryland's.

The District, which the census treats as a state, stands in marked exception to that trend. As once-affordable neighborhoods have gentrified over the past decade, the city has been losing black residents while gaining white newcomers, steadily diminishing its longtime status as a majority-black metropolis.

The latest census figures confirm that pattern, with non-Hispanic blacks accounting for 54 percent of the District's population in 2007, compared with 60 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, the number of non-Hispanic whites increased from 28 to 33 percent in that period, while the Hispanic and non-Hispanic Asian population remained at 8 and 3 percent, respectively.

Database editor Dan Keating contributed to this report.