The high school graduation class of 2025 will be so diverse that white students will be just half the class, according to a new analysis.
Pew Research Center reports that by 2025, the current autopilot immigration system will add Hispanic and Asian students, while the share of African-Americans and European-descent students will decline.
“Immigration and births of second-generation immigrants are likely to drive up the shares of Hispanic and Asian students,” Pew senior researcher Richard Fry explains in his analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statics and the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education.
According to the Pew analysis, in 1995 white students made up 73 percent of the graduating class, by 2012 that share had declined to 57 percent, and by 2025 that proportion is expected to be 51 percent.
The share of Hispanic students, on the other hand, has increased from nine percent in 1995 to 19 percent in 2012, and by 2025 Hispanics will make up 25 percent of the graduating class.
The proportion of Asian students is also expected to increase from four percent in 1995 to six percent in 2012 and is projected to hit eight percent in 2025.
The share of the graduating black population has and is expected to remain relatively consistent. In 1995, 13 percent of high school graduates were black. By 2012 that percentage was 15 percent, and by 2025 black students will make up about 14 percent of the graduating class.