Rice University sociologist explains why Houston is at ‘the cusp of a changing America’ | HOUSTON LIFE | KPRC 2

Houston is where all of America is going to be as the 21st century unfolds…” Dr. Stephen Klineberg, founding-director of Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research, has been studying the growth and diversity of Houston’s population for 40 years. His work is part of the Kinder Houston Area Survey. They have reached more than 48,000 area residents with their phone interviews and online surveys over the years. Answers help them track the changing attitudes, beliefs, and experiences of Houstonians – in a variety of topics like education, healthcare, the economy, social justice, and everyday life. According to Dr. Klineberg, one of the biggest transformations they have seen (in four decades of research), has been Houston moving from a traditionally biracial, Southern blue-collar city into the most ethnically diverse metropolitan region in the country. He says this move was fueled by immigration from Asia and (especially) from Mexico and Central America. Hispanics were 6 percent of the Harris County population in 1960 (and 16 percent in 1980); they comprise 46 percent of the total population today. Dr. Klineberg reflects on these numbers, his research and what it all means for Houston’s future on “Houston Life.”