By Steven Hoffman

Staff Writer

Pennsylvanians are more racially and ethnically diverse than ever before as all minority groups in the state have seen growth since 2010, according to state and county population estimates recently released by the U.S. Census Bureau. Overall, Pennsylvania’s minority population increased by 169,539, reaching 2,762,986 people. That’s a 6.5 percent increase since 2010, which exceeds the national average of 6.2 percent.

Pennsylvania’s population has also gotten older. There are now more than two million residents who are age 65 and older. In 2013, this age group represented 16.4 percent of the total population. Pennsylvania ranks fourth nationally in the percent of the population aged 65 years and over. The aging of the population is also illustrated by an increase in the median age, which was 40.1 years in 2010 and 40.7 in 2013.

The Pennsylvania State Data Center, the official source for population and economic statistics, released a report last week that showed Pennsylvania’s total population now at 12,773,801 as of July 1, 2013. That’s a 0.6 percent increase since 2010.

Between 2010 and 2013, the state’s Hispanic population increased by 88,658, a growth rate of 12.3 percent over the three-year period. There are now 808,318 Hispanics in Pennsylvania.

The Asian race group increased by 10.8 percent and there are now 38,100 people in this group.

The largest race group in Pa. remains non-Hispanic, single-race whites, who represent 78.4 percent of the population—10,010,815 people—which is a decline of 98,117 since 2010.

The U.S. Census Bureau’s population estimates are created using records of births, deaths, and migration to account for yearly population changes since the last census.