Washington, DC (NBC) - The Census Bureau released final figures from the 2010 count, and the data indicates that our country’s Hispanic and Asian population is increasingly rapidly.

The new census numbers released on March 24 show that Hispanics account for more than half of the United States’ growth in the last decade.

The Hispanic growth came from states that traditionally have not had large Hispanic communities, more than doubling in southern states including Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Also experiencing double-digit growth are Asians, which grew faster than the African-American population in 23 states.

Overall, the African-American population stayed stable, roughly equivalent to the country’s 9.7 percent growth rate.

More than 8 million Americans now describe themselves as multi-racial.

‘Overall, we’ve learned that our nation’s population has become more racially and ethnically diverse over the past ten years,’ states US Census Bureau representative Nicholas Jones.

Geographically, the numbers also show this country’s major cities got bigger.

‘The U.S. population is increasingly metropolitan, with a record 83.7 percent of the population now living inside a metro area,’ states Jones.

Twelve cities gained more than 100,000 people during the past decade with the biggest increases taking place in Louisville, Fort Worth, Charlotte, San Antonio and New York City.