Population of the United States by Race and Hispanic

Authored by infoplease.com and submitted by crazypetealive

You May Also Be Searching For: U.S. Statistics | Race & Population Data Race and Hispanic/Latino origin Census 2010,

population Total Population 308,745,538 100.0% 281,421,906 100.0% Single race White 196,817,552 63.7 211,460,626 75.1 Black or African American 37,685,848 12.2 34,658,190 12.3 American Indian and Alaska Native 2,247,098 .7 2,475,956 0.9 Asian 14,465,124 4.7 10,242,998 3.6 Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander 481,576 0.15 398,835 0.1 Two or more races 5,966,481 1.9 6,826,228 2.4 Some other race 604,265 .2 15,359,073 5.5 Hispanic or Latino 50,477,594 16.3 35,305,818 12.5

Source: U.S. Census Bureau: National Population Estimates; Decennial Census.

Note: Percentages do not add up to 100% due to rounding and because Hispanics may be of any race and are therefore counted under more than one category.

Due to the certainty with which racial categories are used, it's easy to assume they're based on some firm grounding principle. However, as with all censuses, the categories used in the U.S. Census are chosen and revised each cycle to reflect the divisions that are considered relevant. That is to say, the reason that the Census Bureau tracks "American Indian and Alaska Native" and doesn't track categories like "Arab" isn't because there's some scientific reason that "Indian" is a race and "Arab" is not. It's because at the time of the 2010 census it was decided that the status of American Indian was important to keep track of for demographic purpose, and that Arab was not.

For a comparison, consider these categories from the comparable U.K. 2011 Census.

How the Category of "Hispanic" Has Evolved

The Hispanic category in the census has changed throughout the decades. Except for a one-time "Mexican" racial category in 1930, the first attempt to track the population that was "Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American," or "Other Spanish" was in 1970. In that year and in the next three censuses, the census bureau kept receiving a great deal of erroneous responses, so they redesigned the question for greater clarity. In 1970, some people from the Midwest or the South mistakenly identified as "Central or South American," and many more did not identify themselves with the target nationalities despite being of Latin American descent. The most recent census, which introduced the wording of "Latino," saw a significant upturn in responses from U.S.-born Latino persons.

From_Wentz_He_Came on November 2nd, 2018 at 13:53 UTC »

I once had a bartender turn me away telling me that I couldn't use a drivers license from another country, I needed a passport. It was a Washington D.C. license. When I tried to tell her that the District of Columbia was not the country of Colombia, she laughed at me and said "nice try."

cuttlefishwizard on November 2nd, 2018 at 13:42 UTC »

Getting "accurate" survey results is a lot harder than people realize. You have to account for everything.

to_the_tenth_power on November 2nd, 2018 at 11:21 UTC »

The Hispanic category in the census has changed throughout the decades. Except for a one-time "Mexican" racial category in 1930, the first attempt to track the population that was "Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American," or "Other Spanish" was in 1970. In that year and in the next three censuses, the census bureau kept receiving a great deal of erroneous responses, so they redesigned the question for greater clarity. In 1970, some people from the Midwest or the South mistakenly identified as "Central or South American," and many more did not identify themselves with the target nationalities despite being of Latin American descent. The most recent census, which introduced the wording of "Latino," saw a significant upturn in responses from U.S.-born Latino persons.

It's pretty funny to hear it in a professional capacity, but it's interesting to see exactly what caused these options evolve over time.