Trends in Racial and Ethnic Diversity

The U.S. population has been growing increasingly diverse in its racial and ethnic composition, especially due to immigration from Asia and Latin America and to the relative youthfulness of the new populations that results in higher fertility.

The following web pages provide the data underlying the US2010 report by Barrett Lee, John Iceland, and Gregory Sharp that provides explicit measures of this trend. Their diversity index indicates how far an area’s population composition varies from complete homogeneity (where there is a single group constituting the whole population). The most diverse area would be one in which there are equal numbers of five categories of people: (1) non-Hispanic whites, (2) non-Hispanic blacks, (3) non-Hispanic Asians and Pacific Islanders, (4) Hispanics of any race, and (5) a combined ‘other’ category that includes non-Hispanic American Indians and Alaska Natives, other races, and multi-race individuals. Click here for a technical description of this index.

CHOOSE A METROPOLITAN OR MICROPOLITAN REGION:

The Census Bureau uses a standard set of definitions of the area included in each "metropolitan statistical area" (MSA) OR “micropolitan statistical area.” A micropolitan area is generally a smaller and less dense region that does not include a city of over 50,000 population. The Lee et al report points out that increasing diversity extends not only to the big metros in the nation, but also to many micropolitan regions.

"Select a Metropolitan Region" lists all MSAs and Metropolitan Divisions alphabetically:

Select a Micropolitan Area:

© Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences, Brown University