Throughout these reports we will refer to several racial and ethnic groups, the definitions of which derive from those used by the US Census Bureau. In the interests of brevity and clarity we have combined several of the Census categories yielding the following mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive categories:
-
White:
non-Hispanic whites
-
Hispanic:
Hispanics, excluding black and Asian Hispanics
-
Black:
blacks, including Hispanic blacks
-
Asian:
Asians, including Hispanic Asians
-
Mixed:
non-Hispanic mixed race people
-
Other:
American Indians and other groups not otherwise categorized
In all cases, racial and ethnic classification is based on self-identification. While the term 'Hispanic' is an ethnic, not a racial, designation (and so there exist Hispanic and non-Hispanic people of all races), we conform with the common practice of comparing Hispanics with other racial groups. This is reflected in our categorization (listed above), and in our preference for the term 'ethno-racial group' in place of just 'race'. Finally, while these categories are used wherever possible, the data does not always allow this grouping, so it is important to read the footnotes of each chart to understand the definitions used therein.
For additional information about the data presented on this site, including our sources, please see the About Page.
