The outflow of white residents from both Shelby County and the entire eight-county Memphis metro area rose to new highs in the last 10 years, census and birth-death numbers show.

The figures reflect that 66,112 more white residents moved away from Shelby County than moved in while the area’s other seven counties had a white in-movement gain of only 29,085.

What these numbers show is: The eight-county area had a net loss of 37,027 white residents to out-movement.

After the 2000 Census but before Marshall, Tate and Tunica counties were added to the metro area, calculations showed that Shelby County had lost 50,681 white residents to outward movement during the 1990s.

Overall, the then five-county metro area had a net loss of 14,633 white residents to out-movement in the 1990s. The addition of the three counties did not significantly change the population picture in the area.

During 2000-2010, the eight-county area also had a large in-movement of African Americans and other minorities including a significant shift of African Americans and other minorities to DeSoto County.

The minority population also increased significantly in Shelby County outside Memphis reflecting a national trend of black residents and other minorities moving to the suburbs.

Another statistic from the 2010 Census: Primarily as a result of the large white outflow, Shelby County had the smallest population increase in any decade since yellow fellow ravaged the area in the 1870s.

The population gain during that decade was only 2,053. A 31,777 increase during 1910-1920 had been second lowest, but the 30,172 gain recorded during 2000-2010 came in below that.

The 1970 Census was, when birth-death numbers are considered, the last 10-year federal census to show more people moving to Shelby County than moving away.

And as a result of the population shifts during the past decade, the 2010 Census is the first show that minority residents are in a majority in the the Memphis metro area.

The census count figures show the white population at 47.9  percent of the eight-county area’s 1,316,100 residents. The non-Hispanic white population, a designation frequently used in census reports, was 46.2 percent of the total.

The African American percentage was 45.7. For several decades, the Memphis metro area has had the highest percentage of  black population among the nation’s large metropolitan areas.

The area has seemed on a path to become the nation’s first metro area of one million or more with a majority black population.

It’s not known for certain right now whether the Memphis area still holds that position since the Census Bureau has not yet published a 2010 racial breakdown of the nation’s metropolitan areas.

Memphis metro area population change 2000-2010

White

Counties       2000            Births         Deaths      Net Migration       2010

Shelby        424,834      +56,395         -38,847           -66,112          376,270

Fayette        17,997         +2,930          -1,971            +7,622            26,578

Tipton          39,920         +5,691          -3,814            +5,704            47,501

Crittenden    25,896        +3,405          -2,632             -3,223            23,446

DeSoto        91,950        +16,103         -7,702          +16,089           116,440

Tate             17,211         +2,448           -1,846          +1,500              19,313

Tunica           2,541           +314              -383              +81                2,553

Marshall     16,925         +2,468            -2,091          +1,312              18,614

Totals        637,274      +89,754          -59,286         -37,027            630,715

 

Black and Other

Shelby        472,638    +89,686         -38,282         +27,332           551,374

Fayette        11,351       +1,572            -1,115           +1,772             13,580

Tipton         10,809        +1,829           -1,024              +221            11,835

Crittenden    24,970      +5,536            -2,284               -766            27,456

DeSoto        15,249      +4,045           -1,194           +26,712            44,812

Tate              8,159        +1,489             -673               +598              9,573

Tunica         6,686          +1,776             -650              +413              8,225

Marshall    18,068        +2,751            -1,515                -774            18,530

Totals        567,930    +108,684        -46,737          +55,508           685,385

 

All

Metro     1,205,204  +198,438      -106,023         +18,481         1,316,100

Source: U.S. Census Bureau and State Vital Statistics Reports