WASHINGTON (AP) -- This could be the year that the number of babies born to minorities in America outnumbers babies born to whites.

That's because immigration has boosted the number of Hispanic women in their prime childbearing years. Hispanic women have an average 2.99 children to 1.87 among white women. In 2008, 48 percent of the children born in the U.S. were minorities.

Sociology professor Kenneth Johnson of the University of New Hampshire says by mid-century, census projections suggest that America "may become a minority-majority country." But at the moment, whites make up two-thirds of the total population.

The birth numbers highlight the nation's growing racial and age divide. There are strong implications for the 2010 population count, which begins in earnest next week.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)