Race and ethnicity in the United States

United States is a diverse country, racially and ethnically.^[1] 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.^[2][3][4] The United States Census Bureau also classifies Americans as "Hispanic or Latino" and "Not Hispanic or Latino", which identifies Hispanic and Latino Americans as a racially diverse ethnicity that composes the largest minority group in the nation.^[2][3][5]

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.^[6] Hispanic and Latino Americans comprise 15% of the population, making up the largest ethnic minority.^[5] Black Americans are the largest racial minority, comprising nearly 13% of the population.^[4][6] The White, non-Hispanic or Latino population comprises 66% of the nation's total.^[5]

White Americans are the majority in every region,^[4] but comprise the highest proportion of the population in the Midwestern United States, at 85% per the PEP,^[4] or 83% per the ACS.^[6] Non-Hispanic Whites make up 79% of the Midwest's population, the highest ratio of any region.^[5] However, 35% of White Americans (whether all White Americans or non-Hispanic/Latino only) live in the South, the most of any region.^[4][5]

55% of the "Black or African American" population lives in The South.^[4] A plurality or majority of the other official groups reside in the West. This region is home to 42% of Hispanic and Latino Americans, 46% of Asian Americans, 48% of American Indians and Alaska Natives, 68% of Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, 37% of the "two or more races" population (Multiracial Americans), and 46% of those designated "some other race".^[4][7]

U.S. real median household income by race and ethnicity from 1967 to 2008, with the intra-group differences illustrated

Main articles: Race in the United States, Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, and Demographics of Asian Americans

In the 2000 Census and subsequent United States Census Bureau surveys, Americans self-described as belonging to these racial groups:^[3]

• White: those having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
• Black or African American: those having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
• American Indian or Alaska Native, also called Native Americans: those having origins in any of the original peoples of North, Central and South America, and who maintain tribal affiliation or community attachment.
• Asian, also called Asian American: those having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent; frequently specified as Chinese American, Korean American, Indian American, Filipino American, Vietnamese American, Japanese American, etc.
• Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islander: those having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands; see also Pacific Islander American.
• Some other race: respondents write in the race they consider themselves to be, if different from the foregoing categories. This category captures responses such as Mestizo, Creole, and Mulatto,^[8] but among the write-in entries reported in the 1965 census were nationalities instead of races, such as South African, Moroccan, Belizean, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, as well as mixed-race terms like Wesort, mixed, interracial, and others.^[3][9] This is not a standard OMB race category.^[3]
• Two or more races, widely known as Multiracial: those who check off and/or write in more than one race. There is no actual option labelled "Two or more races" or "Multiracial" on census and other forms; only the foregoing six races appear, and people who report more than one of them are categorized as people of "Two or more races" in subsequent processing. Any number, up to all six, of the racial categories can be reported by any respondent.

[edit] Ethnicity: Hispanic or Latino origin

The question on Hispanic or Latino origin is separate from the question on race.^[3][10] Hispanic and Latino Americans have origins in the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America and Spain. Most of the Latin American countries are, like the United States, quite racially diverse.^[11] Consequently, no separate racial category exists for Hispanic and Latino Americans, as they do not make up a race of their own; when responding to the race question on the census form they choose from among the same racial categories as all Americans, and are included in the numbers reported for those races.^[12]

Thus each racial category contains Non-Hispanic or Latino and Hispanic or Latino Americans. For example: the White race category contains Non-Hispanic Whites and Hispanic Whites (see White Hispanic and Latino Americans); the Black or African American category contains Non-Hispanic Blacks and Hispanic Blacks (see Black Hispanic and Latino Americans); and likewise for all the other categories. See the section on Hispanic and Latino Americans in this article.

Self-identifying as Hispanic or Latino and not Hispanic or Latino is neither explicitly allowed nor explicitly prohibited.^[2]