Race and Ethnicity in America's Metropolitan Areas

This map shows the cities with the largest percentages of a particular race or ethnicity.  Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics all form majorities in one or more metro areas.  Asians, Native Americans/Alaska Natives, Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, and multi-racial Americans are not the majority in any metro in 2010.

America's Hispanic Majority Metros

Seventeen of America's 366 metro areas have populations whose majority are Hispanic.  All 17 of these metros are found in the American Southwest from central California to Texas.  Historically these 17 urban areas have been part first of Spain's New World colonial empire and later Mexico.

America's most Hispanic metro area is Laredo, TX, where 97% of the population are Hispanic.

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

If Only Latinos Voted

As with yesterday's post, CNN's exit polling data are limited for Latino men and women.  Here are the maps for the existing data:

President Obama won more than 7 of every 10 votes by Latinos in 2012.  

Just How Many Americans Are...

The typical American overestimates the percentage of the population which is Black, Hispanic, or gay.

For me as a demographer, it sometimes seems strange that others don't pour over the latest Census figures and polling data with the glee others dive into a new Harry Potter book.  But, people are strange <wink>.

So perhaps it is not unsurprising that the typical American wildly overestimates the percentage of the population consisting of minority groups.  I believe many people probably base their perceptions on TV programs and the frequency of media coverage involving Americans from various minority groups.  

As I discussed earlier this week, the typical American in a recent Gallup poll estimated a quarter of the US population is gay -rather than the likely more accurate 3.5%.

An older poll from 2001 finds a similar misperception regarding Black and Hispanic Americans.  The average percentages of the population offered by respondents argues that 33% of Americans are Black and 29% of Americans are Hispanic!  The correct percentages from the 2000 US Census are 12.3% Black and 12.5% Hispanic.

Now keep in mind that you can mark Black for your race on the Census, mark Hispanic as your ethnicity, and be gay -a characteristic the Census doesn't ask about individually.  Still, it is fun to ponder that -barring overlap- our poor, hapless typical American may think 87% of the US population is Black, Hispanic, or gay!