HOUSTON – “Houston is where all of America is going to be as the 21st century unfolds…”
Dr. Stephen Klineberg, founding-director of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, has been studying the growth and diversity of Houston’s population for 40 years.
His work is part of the Kinder Houston Area Survey.
They have reached more than 48,000 area residents with their phone interviews and online surveys over the years.
Answers help them track the changing attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of Houstonians – in a variety of topics like education, healthcare, the economy, social justice, and everyday life.
According to Dr. Klineberg, one of the biggest transformations they have seen (in four decades of research), has been Houston moving from a traditionally biracial, Southern blue-collar city into the most ethnically diverse metropolitan region in the country.
He says this move was fueled by immigration from Asia and (especially) from Mexico and Central America.
Hispanics were 6 percent of the Harris County population in 1960 (and 16 percent in 1980); they comprise 46 percent of the total population today.
Dr. Klineberg says this research supports the need to invest public education and programs that support youth outreach.
“Far more than half of all the young people in Harris County today, who are under the age of 20, are Hispanics; another 19 percent are African Americans; only about one-fifth are Anglos. So the Houston future will depend above all on the degree to which Blacks and Hispanics have achieved the levels of education that are required for success in today’s high-tech, knowledge-based economy,” Klineberg explains.
He concludes by noting that the ongoing ethnic transformation may be the greatest asset that Houston could have as it builds the connections to the global marketplace.
Adding that much will depend on how this generation responds to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
CLICK HERE to learn more about the Kinder Houston Area Survey.
