Chapter 1. Demographics

Indicator 2. Population Projections of the Youth Population

The youth population is expected to increase between 2005 and 2025. By 2015, it is expected that there will be 47.9 million youth and young adults between the ages of 14 and 24 years old in the United States, an increase of 3 percent from 2005. By 2025, the number is expected to be 51.4 million, an increase of 7 percent from 2015. However, the overall population of the United States is expected to increase by 10 percent between 2005 and 2015 and another 10 percent between 2015 and 2025, meaning that the youth population will be a smaller proportion of the total population.

Shifts in the racial/ethnic composition of the youth population are projected between 2005 and 2025. While still expected to be the largest group overall, White youth are expected to decline in number between 2005 and 2025, from 28.6 to 25.7 million, a decrease of approximately 10 percent. The number of Black youth is expected to decrease from 6.8 to 6.6 million between 2005 and 2025, with a 2 percent decrease between 2015 and 2025. The number of Hispanic youth is expected to increase from 8.0 million to 11.0 million by 2015, a 37 percent increase, and then to 14.4 million by 2025, another 31 percent increase. Increases are also projected for Asian youth, from 1.8 million in 2005 to 2.7 million by 2025, and for youth of two or more races, from 0.8 million in 2005 to 1.5 million by 2025. The number of American Indian/Alaska Native youth (0.4 million) is projected to decline by 9 percent between 2005 and 2015, but then increase by 6 percent in the following decade.

View Table 2
View Figure 2