Detailed data from the 2020 Census is beginning to be released by the Commerce Department.
“As the country has grown, we have continued to evolve in how we measure the race and ethnicity of the people who live here,” said Nicholas Jones, director and senior advisor for race and ethnicity research and outreach at the Census Bureau. “The release of 2020 Census redistricting data provides a new snapshot of the racial and ethnic composition and diversity of the country. The improvements we made to the 2020 Census yield a more accurate portrait of how people self-identify in response to two separate questions on Hispanic origin and race, revealing that the U.S. population is much more multiracial and more diverse than what we measured in the past.”
The report found that:
- 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 percent 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 percent 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 percent, surpassing the Black or African American population (46.9 million) as the second-largest race alone or in combination group.
