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CNN: “Census release shows America is more diverse and more multiracial than ever”

By immigrationprof

US-Census-2020Logo

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia commons

An installment of data from Census 2020 were released today.  There no doubt will be much commentary on the data in coming days.  Immigration clearly affected the Census data.  The Bureau of the Census offers the following “Race and ethnicity highlights“:

  • The White population remained the largest race or ethnicity group in the United States, with 204.3 million people identifying as White alone. Overall, 235.4 million people reported White alone or in combination with another group. However, the White alone population decreased by 8.6% since 2010.
  • The Two or More Races population (also referred to as the Multiracial population) has changed considerably since 2010. The Multiracial population was measured at 9 million people in 2010 and is now 33.8 million people in 2020, a 276% increase.
  • The “in combination” multiracial populations for all race groups accounted for most of the overall changes in each racial category.
  • All of the race alone or in combination groups experienced increases. The Some Other Race alone or in combination group (49.9 million) increased 129%, surpassing the Black or African American population (46.9 million) as the second-largest race alone or in combination group.
  • The next largest racial populations were the Asian alone or in combination group (24 million), the American Indian and Alaska Native alone or in combination group (9.7 million), and the Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone or in combination group (1.6 million).
  • The Hispanic or Latino population, which includes people of any race, was 62.1 million in 2020. The Hispanic or Latino population grew 23%, while the population that was not of Hispanic or Latino origin grew 4.3% since 2010.

CNN reads the results as follows:

“America is more diverse and more multiracial than ever before, according to new 2020 Census data released on Thursday.

“Our analysis of the 2020 Census results show that the US population is much more multiracial, and more racially and ethnically diverse than what we measured in the past,” said Nicholas Jones, the director and senior advisor of race and ethnic research and outreach in the US Census Bureau’s population division.
 
Non-Hispanic White Americans continue to be the most prevalent group in every state, except for in California, Hawaii and New Mexico, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
 
In California, the Hispanic or Latino population officially became the largest racial or ethnic group in the state for the first time. The Hispanic or Latino community now represents 39.4% of Californians, an increase from 37.6% in 2010.”
 

The U.S. Census Bureau data will be used for redistricting by states and local jurisdictions..

Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) issued the following statement in response to the Census 2020 data:

“Today’s data release from the 2020 Census demonstrates that the Latino community is a huge and increasing part of our nation’s future.  Despite an unprecedented attempt by the disgraced Trump administration to manipulate the decennial Census specifically to reduce the count of Latinos, and despite a likely statistical undercount, the authoritative decennial Census count shows significant growth of the Latino population nationwide, and Latino population growth at a much higher rate than the nation’s non-Latino population.  Latinos accounted for over half the nation’s population growth this past decade.  With over 62 million Latinos living in the United States, investing in our nation’s future means investing in the Latino community — educationally, civically, economically, infrastructurally, and electorally.  There is nothing to fear from the increasing Latino population of the United States; centuries of history, philosophy, psychology, and individual and collective action have shown Latinos to be patriotic and compassionate Americans, with a deep-seated devotion to our shared constitutional and national values.

“One measure of Latino growth nationwide is that nine states, spread across the country, have crossed the threshold of a Latino population that exceeds ten percent in the last decade:  Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Wyoming.  Other states are close behind.  Latinos have been the largest racial minority population in the United States for 18 years, and the Census data confirms our continued growth in prominence.

“We now commence the redistricting process, and today’s data present the usual decennial prospect of substantial new opportunity for Latino voters to elect their preferred candidates to local, state, and national elected office.  MALDEF expects all line-drawers nationwide to react appropriately to the awesome growth of the Latino population by fulfilling their clear legal duty, under the federal Voting Rights Act, to create Latino-majority electoral districts wherever population growth demonstrates that it is possible to do so.  We expect these legal obligations to be met both in states of longstanding significant and growing Latino populations, such as California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Illinois, as well as in states and local areas where the Latino population is only now reaching critical mass to warrant the creation of districts where Latino voters have the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.”

We surely will see other interpretations of the Census 2020 data in coming days.

KJ

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