Racial Diversity: Historical Worksheet
Racial Diversity
ETH/125
Nancy DeVan
March 1, 2013
Associate Program Material
Racial Diversity: Historical Worksheet
Answer the following questions in 100 to 250 words each. Provide citations for all the sources you use.
• Throughout most of U.S. history, in most locations, what race has been in the majority? What is the common ancestral background of most members of this group?
The United States is a diverse country, racially and ethnically. Six races are officially recognized: White, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander, and people of two or more races; a race called "Some other race" is also used in the census and other surveys, but is not official. The United States Census Bureau also classifies Americans as "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino", which identifiesHispanic and Latino Americans as a racially diverse ethnicity that composes the largest minority group in the nation.
White Americans (non-Hispanic/Latino and Hispanic/Latino) are the racial majority, with a 72% share of the U.S. population, according to the 2010 US Census. Hispanic and Latino Americans comprise 15% of the population, making up the largest ethnic minority. Black Americans are the largest racial minority, comprising nearly 13% of the population. The White, non-Hispanic or Latino population comprises 63% of the nation's total.
White Americans are the majority in every region, but comprise the highest proportion of the population in the Midwestern United States, at 85% per the PEP, or 83% per the ACS. Non-Hispanic Whites make up 79% of the Midwest's population, the highest ratio of any region. However, 35% of White Americans (whether all White Americans or non-Hispanic/Latino only) live in the South, the most of any region.
55% of the "Black or African American" population lives in The