Asian Urban America

This rather oddly laid out map reflects that all the metro areas where Asian Americans constitute 10% or more of the population are in the West.  Asian Americans make up 44% of residents in Honolulu.  Greater than 1 in 4 residents in Silicon Valley are also Asian.

Minority Majority States

In demography you lately hear the term majority minority state.  This is a state where non-Hispanic Whites make up less than 50% of the population and where combined minority populations make up the majority.

If we only look at US Census Bureau data for race, Whites represent a minority population only in Hawaii and the District of Columbia.  Minorities make up 42-43% of the populations of California, Maryland, Georgia, and Mississippi, but still are not likely to break the 50% mark in the next few years.

If we add in ethnicity along with race, then more states are minority majority states.  You can be of any race and be Hispanic using the US Census definitions of race and ethnicity.  Thus, many Whites Americans are Hispanic.  In New Mexico, 45% of the population report they are Hispanic.

Adding up all the Americans who belong to racial minorities or are Hispanic Whites will produce four states where racial and ethnic minorities combined are the majority:

• Hawaii
• California
• New Mexico
• Texas

plus

• District of Columbia

Toothless in Tennessee

As part of my continuing series on health data from the 2010 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS), I thought I'd look at seniors who are missing all their teeth.  While this may seem a humorous topic, having poor oral health can open the door for bacteria and shave around 7 years off your life.

This map breaks the data by standard deviations from the mean/average.  So the pale, gray/white states' seniors are average -for the USA- in the percentage who are toothless.  The purple states have higher percentages of toothless seniors with WV, TN, MS, and KY having the worst data on senior oral health.

My friend Lee B. from Clinton, CT, used to tell me that people in Connecticut had great teeth.  Apparently she is right because the Nutmeg State and Hawaii have the most older Americans with their choppers.

And Lo, the First Shall Be...16th

Hawai'i became the 16th state (plus DC) to legalize the recognition of marriage between same-sex couples. It is somewhat ironic that 15 other states and DC beat Hawaii to the finish line on gay marriage.  In the 1990s many thought Hawai'i would be the frontrunner on expanding marriage to same-sex couples.  In a court case running from 1991 to 1999, a HI judge -using directions from the HI Supreme Court- ruled in 1996 that denying marriage to same-sex couples was unconstitutional.  The HI Supreme Court, however, waited to decide the case until a ballot measure passed a 1998 constitutional amendment specifically giving the legislature the power to regulate same-sex marriage.  The Hawai'i legislature promptly then banned same-sex marriage until it changed its mind this month in a special session. As a result, the HI Supreme Court in 1999 upheld the new constitutional amendment banning marriage.

While Vermont became the first state to legalize civil unions granting most of the benefits of civil marriage to same-sex couples in 2000, Hawai'i did not successfully pass a civil union law until 2011 -after the state's then Governor, Linda Lingle (R), vetoed an earlier civil union bill in 2010.

Adding to the oddness of Hawai'i's approach is the unprecedented deluge of 1000s of individual citizens allowed to speak their opinions about same-sex marriage before the HI House.  Many of these opinions were talking points by opponents that reiterated what other citizens had already said.  On top of this, the first openly gay legislator to vote AGAINST civil rights for LGBT people, Rep. Jo Jordan (D), voted against same-sex marriage. Oddly, she voted for civil unions in 2011 and says she supports same-sex marriage -just not the bill that passed.

So, the excitement of Hawai'i's legal decisions in 1996 took 17 years to finally result in upholding the court opinion that denying marriage to same-sex couples was unconstitutional.  While better late than never as the saying goes, Hawai'i's nearly two decades of foot-dragging makes this week's vote somewhat bittersweet.