The population of the United States has more than doubled since 1950, and along with that growth has been a substantial shift in the demographic makeup of the population. In 1950, 97.5% of the population was either non-Hispanic White or Black. By 2020, the Hispanic population had grown from 3.2 million people to 62 million, and the Asian and Pacific Islander population grown from just over 300,000 to 20.5 million. While ethnic reporting in the census has changed over the years, the table below shows the main changes (note that these do not sum to 100%):
| 1950 | 1970 | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 | |
| White, Non-Hispanic | 87.5% | 83.5% | 79.6% | 69.1% | 63.7% | 57.8% |
| Black | 10.0% | 11.1% | 12.1% | 12.3% | 12.6% | 12.6% |
| Asian/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander | 0.2% | 0.5% | 2.9% | 2.9% | 4.9% | 5.6% |
| Native American | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.8% | 0.9% | 0.9% | 0.8% |
| Hispanic | 2.1% | 3.2% | 9.0% | 12.5% | 16.3% | 18.9% |
Overall, as is well known, the population has become much more diverse over the decades, does this translate in the geographic realm? Using the race by Hispanic origin table, and a commonly used diversity measure, we looked at 2000 and 2022 by computing the diversity score for ten mile radius areas around each block group. The ten-mile ring is used as a spatial smoothing device:
Clearly, most areas of the country have become more diverse over time. What is surprising is when we compare the relative diversity by indexing each map to the national average and looking at the change over time:
Interestingly, there are significant areas of the rural southeast that have become less diverse in absolute terms than they were in 2000. Diversity has increased most in the areas with the most growth (much of Texas and the mountain west), the upper midwest, and much of the rural northeast. Even 20 years ago, most of the Hispanic population lived close to the Mexican border, or in a few major eastern cities (New York, Miami in particular). Much of the largely rural upper midwest was almost exclusively populated by a non-Hispanic white population – even by 2000 these areas were among the least diverse nationwide.
However, despite the overall increased diversity, it remains the case that local areas tend to be non-Hispanic white plus one other group rather than being the melting pot that national statistics would suggest. Geography always matters, and national or regional statistics often tell only part of the story.
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