From the OC Register:
“O.C. is a little bit like high-tech, dynamic areas with a little bit of Florida Sunbelt thrown in,” said Frank D. Bean, director of the Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy at UC Irvine. Orange County has nice weather, which attracts affluent retirees. It's an expensive place to live, which drives young people away. The net effect is a graying of the population, Bean said. In addition, places like Orange County have tended to attract lower-wage workers for service or construction jobs, which helps explain the influx of Latinos over the past several years, Bean said. But he warned that the Latino population may not continue to grow as projected because of changes in the economy and in the birth-rate. “Projections just take what happened and extrapolate,” Bean said. The real world evolves. During the housing boom, Bean said, Orange County was attracting Latino workers to build homes. Obviously, that work has declined. At the same time, fertility rates among Latinos have been dropping, Bean said. The recent growth in California's Latino population won't continue at the same rate over the next 15 years, he said.

For the full story, please visit http://www.ocregister.com/news/county-206671-ocprint-orange-population.html.

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