Texas Demographer Steve Murdock

By Sylvia Maria Gross

Kansas City, MO – Steve Murdock became the first official demographer for the state of Texas in 2001. He uses population projections to advise the state government of Texas, and other states too, on everything from public education and health care to budget planning and economic growth. Texas is one of four states that are majority minority - where the combined population of all non-white groups is more than 50%, and Murdock says pretty soon, the whole country will look like Texas.

Murdock was in town recently to speak at the UMKC and came by our studios. He told KCUR's Sylvia Maria Gross that data on the changing population of Texas originally caught some lawmakers by surprise. Steve H. Murdock is the author of An America Challenged, and is also the Lutcher Brown Distinguished Chair in Demography and Organization Studies at the University of Texas-San Antonio.