New Population Counts for Nearly 1,500 Race and Ethnicity Groups

With the inclusion of new write-in areas, we were able to tabulate detailed responses for all major race categories for the first time.

• Among White respondents, English was the most common detailed group reported in 2020 (Table 1). Over 25.5 million people reported English alone, and 46.6 million people reported English alone or in any combination.

• Among Black or African American respondents, African American was the largest detailed group, with 22.1 million people reporting African American alone and 24.6 million reporting African American alone or in any combination (Table 2).

• The largest alone and alone or in any combination groups differed for AIAN tribes and villages (Table 3). The largest detailed AIAN alone group was Aztec (387,122), which was one of the new examples included in the 2020 Census race question, while Cherokee (1.5 million) was the largest detailed alone or in any combination group.

• Among Asian respondents, Asian Indian (4.4 million) was the largest detailed alone group (Table 4). Chinese, except Taiwanese (5.2 million) was the largest detailed alone or in any combination group.

• The most reported detailed Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) group was Native Hawaiian: nearly 200,000 people identified as Native Hawaiian alone, and 680,442 identified as Native Hawaiian alone or in any combination (Table 5).

• The vast majority (93.9%) of respondents classified as Some Other Race alone were of Hispanic origin. 
  
  
• The Brazilian population was the largest detailed Some Other Race group, excluding Hispanic responses and “Multiracial and Multiethnic” responses, such as “Biracial,” to the race question (Table 6). There were 145,180 Brazilian alone responses and 524,382 Brazilian alone or in any combination responses.

The Mexican population (35.9 million) was the largest detailed Hispanic origin group in 2020 (Table 7). The next largest were Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Cuban and Dominican.

The data visualization shows the size and rankings of even more detailed race and ethnicity groups for the nation, states and counties.

In addition to the new detailed White, Black or African American, Some Other Race and regional groups, there were improvements to the code list and tabulations to ensure more detailed Asian, NHPI, AIAN and Hispanic origin groups were available in 2020. These updates include:

• New tabulations for detailed Asian groups: Afghan, Kazakh, Sikh, Uzbek, and more.
  
  
• New tabulations for NHPI groups: Maori, Nauruan, Solomon Islander, and more.
  
  
• New tabulations for detailed Afro Descendent Hispanic origins: Afro-Latino and Garifuna.
  
  
• Lowered population thresholds, which means more detailed AIAN, Asian, NHPI and Hispanic origin groups have published population counts in 2020 than in 2010.
  
  
• Based on consultation with tribal leaders, tribal groupings are not included but detailed AIAN tribes and villages are.

We understand the critical importance of providing disaggregated data for myriad population groups, and the goal of this release is to provide as much data at various geography levels for as many detailed racial and ethnic groups and AIAN tribes and villages [XLS <1.0 MB] as confidentiality protections will allow.

To achieve this, the Detailed DHC-A uses an adaptive design [PDF 10.6 MB] to determine the amount of data published based on population size and geography level:

• At the nation and state levels, detailed and regional groups of all sizes will have total population counts.
  
  
• Detailed groups with populations of 22 or more will have total population counts at county, census tract and place levels, as well as American Indian/Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian (AIANNH) areas.
  
  
• Regional groups with populations of at least 94 will have total population counts at county, census tract and place levels.
  
  
• The adaptive design will use thresholds that vary by geography to determine eligibility for sex-by-age tables.

Data comparisons between the 2020 Census and 2010 Census race data should be made with caution, taking into account the improvements we have made to the race question and the ways we code what people tell us.

Some of these improvements include differences in how race groups were tabulated in 2010 compared to 2020. For example:

• In 2010, “Sikh” was tabulated as “Asian Indian.” In 2020, it was tabulated on its own.
  
  
• In 2010, there was a “Guamanian or Chamorro” checkbox. In 2020, the checkbox was updated to “Chamorro.”
  
  
• In 2010, “Niuean” was tabulated as “Tokelauan.” In 2020, it was tabulated on its own.
  

However, the detailed Hispanic origin data from the ethnicity question are comparable between the two censuses.

For similar updates, data users can reference the Detailed Race and Ethnicity Crosswalk: 2010 to 2020 [XLS <1.0 MB], the 2010 Census Hispanic or Latino Origin and Race Code Lists [PDF 4.5 MB] and the 2020 Census Hispanic Origin and Race Code List [XLS <1.0 MB] for how specific groups were coded in both censuses.

The Detailed DHC-A is unlike other data products most data users are familiar with, such as the American Community Survey (ACS) and previous decennial census releases.

To help data users get the most out of the Detailed DHC-A data, the technical documentation [PDF 10.6 MB] includes guidance on topics such as:

• Comparing to the ACS.
  
• Calculating percentages.
• Suppressed counts.
• Data aggregation.
• Margins of error.

The technical documentation [PDF 10.6 MB] also discusses some of the known inconsistencies data users may encounter when using the Detailed DHC-A and provides details about the privacy protections implemented to ensure confidentiality.