Diversity on a Personal Level: A First Look at Multiple Race PopulationPosted in Articles, Census/Demographics, Media Archive, United States on 2010-09-02 05:09Z by Steven |
Diversity on a Personal Level: A First Look at Multiple Race Population
Indiana Business Review
Summer 2001
pages 6-7
John Besl, Research Demographer
Indiana Business Research Center, Kelley School of Business
Indiana University
For many decades, census data have provided a look at racial diversity in our nation’s communities. But Census 2000 offers a truly innovative look at racial diversity, with counts of persons claiming a heritage of two or more races. Census 2000 race tabulations include six different categories of one race “alone,” and 57 different combinations of these six discrete races. Adding to the mountain of data, the 63 race categories are also cross-tabulated by two origin categories (Hispanic or Not Hispanic). The unprecedented detail afforded by 126 race-origin combinations was made possible (necessary?) by the new “check all that apply” option for identifying race on the Census 2000 questionnaire. Former Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt, the man in charge of the 2000 national headcount, recently expressed his opinion that the most significant historical development from the 2000 census will be the introduction of the multiple race option…
Read the entire article here.