(June 14)  San Bernardino County within the last two years passed a significant demographic milestone, as the number of Latinos living within its borders grew to become an outright majority of the population.
According to U.S. Census data released yesterday, June 13, Hispanics now account for 50.5 percent of San Bernardino County’s population. According to the U.S. Census, 32.7 percent of the county’s population is white, 9.6 percent is African-American, 6.9 percent is Asian and two percent is Native American.
San Bernardino County has joined the ranks of a growing number of cities and counties with a Latino majority. Among counties specifically, it is the second largest in the country where Latinos outnumber all other ethnic groups combined. Miami-Dade County in Florida, where 64.3 percent of residents are Hispanic, holds the distinction of being the largest such county. Miami-Dade and San Bernardino are the only two counties nationwide with a population exceeding 2 million where Latinos form a majority.
According to the U.S. Census, the number of those identifiable as Hispanic in San Bernardino County eclipsed the half way mark sometime in late 2011 or 2012.
For accounting purposes, the government defines its years on a fiscal calendar, which runs from July 1 to June 30. In the year ending June 30, 2012, San Bernardino County’s Latino population edged upward by nearly 2 percent over the previous year, from 1,030,213 in 2011 to 1,050,372 in 2012. At the initiation of the 2011-12 Fiscal Year in July 2011, Latinos registered as 49.9 percent of San Bernardino County’s total population of 2,064,511. By July 2012, they accounted for 50.5 percent of the county’s total population of 2,081,313, according to Census figures.
The increase in the numbers of Latinos in the local  population over the years has been reflected in political representation across the county. At present, two of the members of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors are Hispanic or of Hispanic ancestry. Half of the county’s 24 cities – Chino Hills, Chino, Ontario, Fontana, Rialto, Colton, Grand Terrace, Redlands, Needles, Barstow, Adelanto and Victorville  – have at least one Hispanic councilmember. In Colton, the only city where Hispanics form a majority of the council, six of its seven members are Latino.
Like most of California, San Bernardino County has long had a significant Hispanic population. That base has grown considerably in the last several decades. In 1990, Latinos were 26.7 percent of the county population. By 2000, their ranks had grown to 39.2 percent. In 2010, that number eclipsed 48 percent.
In San Bernardino County the Hispanic demographic is a relatively young one. The median Latino age in San Bernardino County is 27. By contrast, the median age of Caucasians in San Bernardino County is 45.