For the first time in modern history, most of the babies being born in California are Latino, according to an analysis of state birth records through 2005 by the Mercury News. Population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau also show that for the first time in 2004 more than half of the children under age 5 in California are Latino.
2004 was the first full year when the number of babies born to Latina mothers nudged past 50 percent of the children born in California; it reached 51.5 percent in 2005. These newest Californians are the leading edge of a Latino demographic surge that will remake the state in unknown ways during the coming decades. But those changes, say demographers, will be driven primarily by the birth of native-born children - not by immigration.
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