Urban Native America

For at least 15 millennia Native Americans made up all or the vast majorities of peoples living in the area that is now the United States.  Today all the metro areas in the eastern US and Hawaii have fewer than 5% of their populations who identify as Native American on the US Census.  In Oklahoma (the former Indian Territory), New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and South Dakota there are 9 metro areas where Native Americans make up 5% or more of the population.  In Flagstaff (AZ) and Farmington (NM) at least 1 in 4 residents are Native American.

Black Urban America

One of my former students once asked me which cities had the highest percentage of unmarried African-American professional men.  She was a young, unmarried African-American woman in graduate school and wanted to find a similar man.  I told her I didn't actually know.  Her guess was Atlanta or Chicago.

I still don't know the answer to my student's question, but this map shows the metro areas where African-Americans make up a larger percentage of the population.  In Alaska (not shown), Hawaii (not shown), much of the West, and in many of the urban areas of Appalachia, Black Americans make up fewer than 1 in 20 residents.  In fact, only in Las Vegas and Vallego-Fairfield (CA) do the percentages of African-Americans top 1 in 10 people.

From Louisiana to Maryland, however, Black residents constitute at least a quarter (1 in 4) of the population.  In only one metro (Albany, GA) Blacks are the majority.

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 Only Majority Black Metro

The majority of Black Americans live in urban areas, but African-Americans make up the majority of the population in only one metropolitan area:  Albany, GA.

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.

The Typical American's Moral Views

According to polling by Gallup, Americans' views on various issues of relationships and morality continue to evolve.  As of 2013 the majority of Americans view same-sex marriage, interracial marriage, divorce, sex outside of marriage, and having a child outside of marriage as morally acceptable.  Adultery remains unpopular.  Polygamy also remains unpopular although the percentage of Americans viewing polygamy as morally acceptable has doubled since 2001.

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

California's Melting Pot

California is a special state in many ways demographically.  Foremost, more Americans live in California than any other state.  Californians make up 12% of the entire US population.  That means that more than 1 in 8 Americans live in the Golden State.



In terms of race and ethnicity, California also is impressive:

•  1 in 3 Asian Americans are Californians
• Almost 1 in 4 Hispanic Americans live in California
• More Hawaiian Americans and other Pacific Islanders live in California (144K) than in Hawaii (135K)
• 1 in 5 multi-racial Americans live in California
• About 12% of all Native Americans and Alaska Natives also call California home

As for Whites and Blacks, Californians represent smaller percentages of these groups.  The Golden State accounts for only 6% of the total US Black population.  One in 10 White Americans are Californians.  

If Only Black Women and Black Men Voted

CNN did not collect exit polling data for a number of states in 2012.  In those states where exit polling was conducted, data on the voting preferences of black and Hispanic Americans are also limited.  In some cases the public data shows results for black women but not black men.  Here are the resulting maps.

President Obama won 9 of every 10 votes -or higher- among black voters.

If Only White Men Voted, Part 2

Among the states where CNN gathered exit polling data, Romney won overwhelmingly among white men -a core voting bloc for the GOP. A majority of white male voters supported President Obama's re-election in only four states:  WA, OR, VT, and MA.

In fact, the last time a Democratic presidential candidate won a majority of white voters was in 1964 -and race has a LOT to do with this pattern.  In 1860 the Northern states where slavery was abolished voted solidly for Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate.  The Democratic Party had splintered between Northern and Southern interests into the National (Northern) Democratic Party and Constitutional (Southern) Democratic Party.  A fourth party, the Whig Party, had been a strong force in US politics for two decades but had dissolved.  Some former Whigs formed a new fourth party, the Constitutional Union Party, that also ran in the 1860 presidential election.

The Southern slave states voted overwhelmingly for the Southern faction of Democrats or the Constitutional Union Party.  Only Missouri voted for the Northern faction of the Democrats.  The united Republicans in the North successfully elected Lincoln to the White House in 1860.  By April of the next year the US was embroiled in its civil war.

After the Civil War, a basic pattern emerged where the North voted primarily Republican and the "Solid South" supported Democrats overwhelmingly.  In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson, a Southern Democrat from Texas, signed the Civil Rights Act into law.  This law ensured American adults regardless of race could vote.  When he signed the law, Johnson pondered that he might be handing the South over to the Republicans.  Sure enough, white voters revolted.  Since the Civil Rights Act was signed into law, former Dixiecrats have moved en masse to the Republican Party.  No Democratic presidential candidate has broken 50% of the the white vote since 1964 -though Carter, a Southerner, almost did with 48% of the white vote in 1976.

Today the party patterns have largely flipped with the Old South a Republican stronghold in terms of national politics.  Likewise, New England moderate Republicans are all but extinct with the former Union states largely voting Democratic in national elections.

You can compare white male voters' outcomes above to the outcomes for each state for the whole population of voters below:

Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery

Majority:  

• Have been married by age 49

• Want to get married if they have not been

• Morally approve of interracial marriage

• Probably will have an extramarital affair in their lifetime

The first of the Ten Commandments I am going to examine is the prohibition against adultery.  While sociologist Andrew Cherlin projects that 85-90% of Americans will marry by the time they turn 49, marital infidelity is common.  The prevalence of infidelity among married heterosexuals covers quite a range in scientific studies.  Early sexologist Alfred Kinsey found that a third of men and a quarter of women reported having an affair on their spouse.  A meta-analysis of infidelity studies also finds a wide range of estimates, but these studies show 40-70% of married heterosexuals have an extramarital affair at some point in their lives.

In other words, adultery is common and possibly a behavior practiced at least once by the majority of married Americans.  Holy Moses indeed!

Gallup polling finds the majority -72%- of Americans polled in 2013 have been married.  Among those who have never married, 78% would like to marry someday.  One in four Americans, however, report to Gallup they have been divorced.

American attitudes towards sex in general and marriage continue to change.  From Gallup's polling on marriage, one can see big sea changes in Americans' attitudes:

Perhaps the biggest change -and longest tracked by Gallup- involves interracial marriage.  In 55 years the percentage of Americans approving of marriage between blacks and whites has jumped 83%.

Tune in tomorrow for more polling data!

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!