Visualizing U.S. Diversity: 2000 to 2010

Hasan Shahid, U.S. Census Bureau
Lindsay Hixson, U.S. Census Bureau

This research provides insights into the analyses being developed to examine diversity in the United States in 2010, as well as changes in diversity between 2000 and 2010, using data from the 2000 and 2010 censuses. The diversity index used measures the probability that two randomly selected people will be of a different race or ethnicity. The higher the diversity index score, the higher the diversity in a given geographic area. The analyses focus on factors that are driving diversity by exploring the distributional change of race and ethnic groups at different geographic levels. The United States experienced a nearly 6 percent increase in diversity over the past decade, from 49.0 percent to 54.9 percent. This research explores analyses at the regional, state, and county levels and describes the research findings in a poster format, via the use of state and county level maps, charts, and tables.