The demographics of Arizona are changing with a growing divide between age and race. This gap could potentially cause strife between generations over topics like education and politics.
A 2013 study from Pew Charitable Trusts shows that Arizona has the widest racial generation gap in the country. After analyzing census data, they found that 59 percent of people under the age of 18 are a minority compared to 18 percent of people over 65.
William Hart with the Morrison Institute said this demographic gap is the most important issue facing Arizona right now.
"America is and Arizona is dividing up into what they call the brown and the gray," Hart said. "The older people who tend to be non-Hispanic whites tend to be higher educated, tend to be wealthier and more politically active and the Brown Latinos, who are significantly younger, will soon be the majority of the population."
Hart said that this raises concerns about the future of the public education system in Arizona with the majority now being minorities.
"The concern is that as the public school system becomes more brown, the majority or the more powerful and entrenched non-Hispanic white community is going to be less and less interested in helping it out," Hart said.
Hart said that these numbers indicate that if Latinos registered and then voted it could lead to a shift in the political power at the polls.
