Latinos will outnumber non-Hispanic whites in California by early next year for the first time since it became a US state, according to official forecasts released Thursday. The number of Latinos will equal the white population by mid-2013, when each group is expected to be about 39 percent of the western state's population, the Department of Finance predictions showed. "Early in 2014, the Hispanic population will become the plurality in California for the first time since California became a state," it added.