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Early reports from Census 2000 about the growing diversity of the American population have emphasized the large increases in the Hispanic and Asian minorities in many regions of the country. There are also substantial differences within the non-Hispanic black and white populations that are worthy of attention. We can use recently released census data on ancestry and country of birth to quantify some of these differences. The data presented here focuses on non-Hispanic blacks, non-Hispanic whites and people of Muslim origin. For comparison, we have included data for Hispanic and Asian populations. Among blacks, both the Afro-Caribbean population (people from such places as Jamaica, Haiti, and Guyana) and people with recent sub-Saharan African ancestry (from places like Nigeria and Ghana) are distinguished from the longer established African Americans. Among whites, the major European-origin ethnic groups, now primarily in their 3rd or later generations in this country, are identified by one or two specific European ancestries such as Irish, German, and Italian. Arriving later in the 20th Century are many groups from predominantly Muslim countries, including Arabs from North Africa and the Middle East and Iranians. These people mostly identify their race as white, but their relatively recent arrival, their religious distinctiveness, and their emergence as a more visible community after 9-11 offer reasons to think of them as a new white minority. People from primarily Muslim countries in South Asia, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, are also included in this review. India, though it constitutes the largest single source of Muslims, is not included because a majority of people in India are non-Muslim. We have provided information on the size of each ethnic group in metro areas, cities, and suburbs in 1990 and 2000. You can analyze the groups' neighborhood segregation and the quality of their neighborhoods. Neighborhood segregation is indicated by the ethnic group's isolation and exposure to other racial and ethic groups. Neighborhood quality is given by the median household income, percent with a college education, and percent of homeowners in a neighborhood in which an average white or black ethnic person lives. Click
here for technical information on how each group was counted.
Select a metropolitan region using the menu above. For each region, data is provided for the entire metropolitan area, as well as its central city and suburban portions. Click here for a description of how the Census Bureau defines metro regions |
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