Asians and Hispanics Drive Increase in Bay Area Diversity

Former white enclaves are now more mixed, but black population sank in most parts of the Bay
By: Gerry Shih

Since 2000, Hayward has become the most racially diverse city in the Bay Area. The majority of San Pablo residents are now Hispanic. In all but a handful of communities around the Bay, black populations have remained relatively stagnant or even shrunk.

And Pleasanton, once an undisputedly white enclave of Alameda County, is now almost one-fourth Asian — just one example of the string of wealthy suburban cities in the East Bay that have boomed over the past decade as middle- and upper-class Asian households settle into homes there.

Those are just some of the significant demographic shifts found in new census figures, released Tuesday, that reveal just how profoundly Asians and Hispanics are driving population growth in the San Francisco Bay Area — and altering the racial calculus of one of the nation’s great melting pots.

Some of the fastest-changing cities in the nine-county region are in western Contra Costa County, where Hispanic communities are flourishing. Richmond, long known as a black enclave, is now 39 percent Hispanic, compared to 27 percent a decade ago. In Pittsburg, one of the region’s more dynamic municipalities whose population grew 11 percent, the Hispanic population jumped from 32 percent to 42 percent. Across San Pablo Bay, in Sonoma County, Santa Rosa’s Hispanic population grew by 69 percent, in large part driving the city’s 14 percent boom in overall population.

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In traditionally white East Bay suburbs like San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, it is Asians who are driving growth and diversity.

The survey found that San Ramon is now 36 percent Asian, compared to 15 percent in 2000. Dublin’s Asian population quadrupled, from about 3,000 to more than 12,000, comprising 27 percent of the city's total today versus 10 percent in 2000.

South Bay cities like Cupertino, Fremont and Saratoga are also seeing a massive influx of Asian households drawn by Silicon Valley jobs. Cupertino, which had a majority of white residents just 10 years ago, is now 63 percent Asian. The Asian population jumped from 37 percent to 51 percent in Fremont. In wealthy Saratoga, the overall population grew by just 83 people, but the racial makeup changed dramatically: Asians now make up 41 percent of the total, up from 29 percent in 2000.

The census results confirmed the sustained trend of black flight from the Bay Area, especially from major cities, with close to 33,000 African-Americans leaving Oakland over the past 10 years, a slide of 23 percent in the city’s black population. Over the same period, 20 percent of San Francisco’s black residents left the city. And in Richmond, the African-American population dropped from 36 to 27 percent of the total population, while Hispanics steadily gained demographic primacy.

In recent years, Oakland residents have anecdotally spoken of a massive migration of African-Americans to Antioch, often through the Section 8 federal subsidized housing program. The census showed that Antioch, one of the region’s swiftest-growing cities, was also one of the very few cities that saw growth in its black population, from 10 percent to 17 percent.

Beyond Antioch, there were few destinations that experienced a significant rise in black population. The data indicate that close to 30,000 African-Americans left the region altogether.