For the first time in national history, the majority of young people in two states - California and New Mexico - now identify as Hispanic, according to census data

In eight additional states - Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Maryland and Hawaii - white children are in the minority compared with peers from other racial and ethnic groups combined, according to data analyzed by William Frey at the Brookings Institution. The number of white children in the United States actually shrank by 4.3 million kids from 2000 to 2010, according to the analysis. Meanwhile, the number of Hispanic and Asian children grew by a total of 5.5 million. Hispanics made up the bulk of this growth. "Were it not for Hispanics, the nation's child population would have declined," Frey writes in his report. The trend is expected to continue, with changes first hitting people younger than 18, then spreading as generations age. The U.S. Census Bureau, which has been releasing data about the makeup of the nation following its 2010 count, estimates that America's young people will become minority white in 2023. About two decades later, in 2042, the same will be true for adults. Some demographers, including Frey, expect those milestones to occur even sooner than that. In places such as Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina, these changes are creating more tensions, in part, demographers say, because change is happening at such a fast clip. South Carolina's Hispanic population increased 148% between 2000 and 2010, faster than any other state during that period, census data show. Hispanic kids currently lag behind their peers in terms of high school graduation rates and college acceptance. More than 17% of Hispanic people ages 16 to 24 are high-school dropouts; compared with only 6% of whites, 9% of blacks and 4% of Asians of the same age group, according to 2009 data analyzed by the Pew Hispanic Center.