"About one in three U.S. residents is a minority," said Census Bureau Director Louis Kincannon.

"There are more minorities in this country today than there were people in the United States in 1910. In fact, the minority population in the U.S. is larger than the total population of all but 11 countries (on the planet)."

The black population grew 1.3 percent in the year from July 2005 and reached 40.2 million in 2006, the census said, while the number of native Hawaiians and members of other Pacific islander groups reached 1 million.

Asians were the second fastest-growing minority group at a rate of 3.2 percent, with their numbers standing at 14.9 million.

The population of non-Hispanic whites who indicated no other race grew 0.3 percent during the one-year period.

New York state had the largest black population with 3.5 million people, followed by Florida at 3 million and Texas at 2.9 million. The median age of African Americans was 30.1 years, lower than the 36.4 for the whole population.

Four states and the District of Columbia now have more minorities than members of the majority white population.

Hawaii has a population that was 75 percent minority in 2006. The District of Columbia stood at 68 percent, with New Mexico at 57 percent, California at 57 percent and Texas at 52 percent, the report said.