It is important to note that these 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 Hispanic origin and race questions and the ways we code what people tell us.
Accordingly, data from the 2020 Census show different but reasonable and expected distributions from the 2010 Census for the White alone population, the Some Other Race alone or in combination population, and the Multiracial population, especially for people who self-identify as both White and Some Other Race.
These results are not surprising as they align with Census Bureau expert research and corresponding findings this past decade, particularly with the results on the impacts of questions format on race and ethnicity reporting from the 2015 National Content Test.
The Census Bureau uses several measures to analyze the racial and ethnic diversity of the country.
The Census Bureau uses the Diversity Index (DI) to measure the probability that two people chosen at random will be from different racial and ethnic groups.
The DI is bounded between 0 and 1. A value of 0 indicates that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics. A value close to 1 indicates that almost everyone in the population has different racial and ethnic characteristics.
We have converted the probabilities into percentages to make them easier to interpret. In this format, the DI tells us the chance that two people chosen at random will be from different racial and ethnic groups.
Using the same DI calculation for 2020 and 2010 redistricting data, the chance that two people chosen at random will be from different racial or ethnic groups has increased to 61.1% in 2020 from 54.9% in 2010.
In general, the states with the highest DI scores are found in the West (Hawaii, California and Nevada), the South (Maryland and Texas; along with the District of Columbia, a state equivalent), and the Northeast (New York and New Jersey).
Hawaii had the highest DI score in 2020 at 76%, which was slightly higher than 2010 (75.1%).
Information on the racial and ethnic composition of your state and county, and various measures of diversity are available in the following America Counts stories: 2020 U.S. Population More Racially and Ethnically Diverse Than Measured in 2010 and Improved Race and Ethnicity Measures Reveal U.S. Population Is Much More Multiracial.
The Adult and Under-Age-18 Populations
The 2020 Census showed that the adult (age 18 and older) population group grew 10.1% to 258.3 million people over the decade.
“More than three-quarters, 77.9%, of the U.S. population were age 18 and over,” said Andrew Roberts, chief of the Sex and Age Statistics Branch in the Census Bureau’s Population Division. “The adult population grew faster than the nation as a whole. By comparison, the population under age 18 was 73.1 million in 2020, a decline of 1.4% from the 2010 Census.”
Changes to the adult and under-age-18 populations:
- The District of Columbia had the largest population age 18 and over as a percentage of population at 83.4%. Utah had the largest population under age 18 as a percentage of population at 29.0%.
- Utah also had the fastest-growing adult population at 22.8% growth.
- North Dakota had the fastest-growing population under age 18 at 22.1% growth.
Additional age breakdowns will be available in future 2020 Census data releases scheduled for 2022.
As part of today’s release, the Census Bureau provided a new data visualization that highlights the adult and under-age-18 populations across the United States down to the county level. More information is available in the America Counts story, U.S. Adult Population Grew Faster Than Nation’s Total Population From 2010 to 2020.
2020 Census Housing Units
The 2020 Census showed that on April 1, 2020, there were 140,498,736 housing units in the United States, up 6.7% from the 2010 Census.
“While the national number of housing units grew over the past decade, this was not uniform throughout the country,” said Evan Brassell, chief of the Housing Statistics Branch in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic and Housing Statistics Division. “Counties that composed some part of a metropolitan or micropolitan area saw increases of 3.8%, on average, while counties outside of these areas showed decreases of 3.9% on average.”
State highlights:
- Texas had the largest numeric growth in housing units with 1,611,888.
- The county with the largest percent increase in housing was McKenzie County, North Dakota, with a 147.9% increase.
- West Virginia and Puerto Rico were the only two states or state equivalents that lost housing units.
- There were 126,817,580 occupied housing units and 13,681,156 vacant units in the United States.
Housing unit statistics for the nation, states and counties are available in the 2020 Population and Housing data visualization. More information is available in the following America Counts stories: Growth in Housing Units Slowed in the Last Decade and U.S. Housing Vacancy Rate Declined in Past Decade.
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