HispanicBusiness

The growth of the U.S. Hispanic population slowed considerably in 2008, with 36 states posting a smaller increase than the year before, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The biggest dips came in states hit hardest by the housing meltdown, such as Nevada and Arizona, CBS reports.

The immigration slowdown means that the Census Bureau's much talked-about estimate last year stating that minorities could become a majority nationwide by 2042 might be 10 years off, and the tipping point could come in 2052, CBS reported.

Census experts said they are recalculating the new estimate, because they underestimated how the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks affected immigration policies, and how economic recession has slowed immigration.

Still, the Census's mid-May report concluded that the nation's overall minority population rose 2.3 percent in 2008, to about 105 million, meaning that one-in-three Americans is a minority.

And in a sign that the face of America is changing, a county in Kansas joined the ranks of a club that, until now, has not included many Midwestern members: places where minorities are the new majority.

The county in question is Finney, where about 45 percent of the 41,000 residents are Hispanic, and an additional 6 percent are members of other racial minority groups. Add it up and you get 51 percent -- a majority.

(Click here to see the results for your county.)

The new Census numbers show five other counties throughout the United States also reached the minority-majority threshold between 2007 and 2008. Those counties are in Mississippi, Florida, California and Texas, which has two.

All told, about 10 percent of the nation's 3,142 counties are majority minority.