Number of White Students Decreases

In a sign of the growing ethnic diversity of Orange County, the number of white students in public schools decreased in the past year, even as the total student population increased by 10,000.

Latinos became the largest ethnic group of Orange County students last year, outnumbering whites for the first time, according to county demographic data.

This year, the proportion of Latino students continued to grow, to 43.1% from 42.3%, while the proportion of white students fell slightly to 39.7% from 40.8% last year, according to the annual enrollment survey taken last fall and released this week.

“That’s just the demographics of the state,” said John Fogarty, coordinator of fiscal services for the Orange County Department of Education. “The Hispanic population is growing, and the white population is decreasing.”

Overall, the number of Latino students grew by 8,000, to 217,506. The population of Asian American students increased by 2,000, to 61,783, while the number of Native American students rose to 3,050 from 2,457.

The population of African American students declined slightly to 9,588 from 9,660. The biggest decrease was in the number of white students, which fell to 200,554 from 202,211.

Overall, Orange County had public school enrollment last fall of 505,079.