Multiracial Population Growing

The group of census-takers reporting their race as both white and black is at 1.8 million, which is a 134 percent increase since 2000.

In 2008, many Americans celebrated “the first black president.” But Barack Obama is actually biracial – like an increasing number of us who want to be seen that way.

According to a new release of 2010 Census info, “people who reported multiple races grew by a larger percentage than those reporting a single race.” The total U.S. population has grown by 9.7 percent since 2000. But certain categories of mixed-race parentage have increased by more than half…

Changes in Race Combinations

• Four groups were the largest multiple-race combinations, each exceeding 1 million people in size, white and black (1.8 million), white and “some other race” (1.7 million), white and Asian (1.6 million) and white and American Indian and Alaska Native (1.4 million).
• Since 2000, two multiple-race groups exhibited the most significant changes — the white and black population, which grew more than 1 million and increased by 134 percent; and the white and Asian population, which grew by about 750,000 and increased by 87 percent.

Multiple-Race Populations by State

• There were 16 states where the people who reported more than one race exceeded 200,000 or more. The top three states (California, Texas and New York) each had a multiple-race population of half a million people or more.
• The percentage change in the multiple-race population was 70 percent or greater in nine states — South Carolina, North Carolina, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi and South Dakota. Each state, with the exception of South Dakota, was a southern state. The multiple-race population grew by 50 percent or more in 22 additional states.

Multiple-Race Populations by Place

• Among places with populations of 100,000 or more, Urban Honolulu CDP, Hawaii (a census designated place) was the place with the highest proportion of multiple-race whites, multiple-race Asians, and multiple-race Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders. Lansing, Mich., was the place with the highest proportion of multiple-race blacks, and Anchorage, Alaska, was the place with the highest proportion of multiple-race American Indians and Alaska Natives.

This is no surprise to me. I’m white, and my wife is Pacific Islander. But it’s worth noting that these race selections are self-reported on the Census, which has only allowed people to select multiple races since 2000. So while mixed-race populations are probably growing, these stats could also reflect some people just becoming more comfortable with or aware of their heritage. (And people who are just now noticing the option is no longer either/or.)

Source: MoneyTalksNews http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2012/09/28/multiracial-population-growing-fastest/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mtrss+(Money+Talks+News)

Multiracial and the Media: The Multiracial Advocacy Blog

Multiracial and the Media 

This past week, most media covered the press release by the Census Bureau about the results of the "Multiple-Race" population. We have been in talks with the bureau about the wording of the classification and as a result they have at least gone to "multiple race," which is better than "People of More than One Race" and "Combination People." They may get to the preferred terminology of "multiracial" yet.

Meanwhile, we rated a portion the media that covered the story:

Excellent Use of the term Multiracial throughout the articles"
Bloomberg News
Washington Examiner
Honolulu Star

Equal time to the use of "Multiracial":
Huff Post

Bad:
Pew Research
The Sacramento Bee 
Money Talks News

The absolute worst use of terminology:
CNN

 Project RACE will continue to try to educate the media.

Multiracial American Indian Population

Census releases data on American Indian population

Felicia Fonseca, Associated Press

 

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Almost half of American Indians and Alaska Natives identify with multiple races, representing a group that grew by 39 percent over a decade, according to U.S. Census data released Wednesday.

Of the 5.2 million people counted as Natives in 2010, nearly 2.3 million reported being Native in combination with one or more of six other race categories, showcasing a growing diversity among Natives. Those who added black, white or both as a personal identifier made up 84 percent of the multi-racial group.

Tribal officials and organizations look to Census data for funding, to plan communities, to foster solidarity among tribes and for accountability from federal agencies that have a trust responsibility with tribal members.

The bump in the multi-racial group from 1.6 million in 2000 to nearly 2.3 million in 2010 was higher than that of those who reported being solely of Native descent. "When information comes out and is available for our tribes and tribal communities, we have a lot of issues going back to identity," said Mellor Willie, executive director of the National American Indian Housing Council. "Who is Indian?"

The Census figures, released during a presentation at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., also include people living in the United States who consider themselves indigenous to Central and South America. Tribal officials say it's the best snapshot of Native people available, but the data is often supplemented with tribal enrollment figures or other surveys and studies.

Amber Ebarb, with the National Congress of American Indians' Policy Research Center, said the data also is used to track trends among states and regions, determine the mobility patterns of Natives and figure out how best to deliver services to Natives or conduct outreach.
"It's kind of a function of geography," she said. "There's this trend where single-race American Indians live in tribal communities and multi-race Natives live farther."

The Blackfeet Nation in Montana had the highest proportion of people who reported being part of more than one racial group or tribe at 74 percent. Among Alaska Native groups, the Tlingit-Haida had the highest proportion of mixed-race Natives at 42 percent. The number of Natives identifying with at least one other race increased in all but three states from 2000 to 2010, according to the Census.

Some tribes were less diverse. Of the 34,000 people who identify as Yup'ik, an Alaska Native tribe, 29,000 said they were affiliated with no other race. The Navajo Nation, whose reservation stretches into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona, had the highest proportion of people who identified as Native and nothing else at 86 percent of its 332,000 population, Census officials said.

The Navajo Nation comes in second in population behind the Cherokee's 819,000 population, 65 percent of whom identify with another race.Census Director Robert Groves said the bureau has projected that the overall Native population will increase to 6.8 million in 2030 and about 8.6 million in 2050. Both multiracial Natives and Natives alone grew at a rate higher from 2000 to 2010 than the U.S. population at large.

Among other findings:
—Seventy-eight percent of Natives live off tribal reservations but many live in counties close to reservations, particularly throughout the West, including Oklahoma.
—The majority of Natives live in 10 states: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington.
—The population of multi-racial Natives jumped by more than 50 percent in 18 states, and by more than 70 percent in North Carolina, Delaware and South Dakota.

Sources: The Associated Press.and Reznet News

Did you do your Census Job Today?

Isn't this supposed to be the JOB of the US Census Bureau?!

http://www.census.gov/research/challenge/

More on White Privilege and the Multiracial Community

More on White Privilege and the Multiracial Community

I have taken a little heat since my post about white privilege. After 22 years of multiracial advocacy, this does not surprise me.

It is the policy of Project RACE to let people comment; that is how we maintain a dialogue. However, we reserve the right to not allow comments to be made by people who have blogs that do not allow comments. For the record, Alyssa’s blog takes comments, but she would not post mine. We have other rules for posting, which you can go back and read at Blog Rules and Regulations posted on June 23, 2012.

I have taken a lot of flak over the past 22 years from multiracials because I am the mother of two multiracial children, and I am white. Does race really matter or are racial groups a thing of the past? In a race-neutral society, it would not matter, just as gender does not matter in a leadership role. Take Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). They had a FATHER at the helm for quite awhile. That’s right. Even the NAACP has had multiracial people at the top of their executive boards. You don’t have to BE one to GET IT!

Writing about the NAACP reminded me of a time when I became close friends with one of the board members of the NAACP Cobb County, Georgia, which was one of their largest groups. She invited me to their annual banquet; one reason was because she wanted me to meet and have a chance to speak with the president of the national NAACP, Benjamin Chavis, which I did. I was one of only a handful of white people at the banquet. I was the only person asked to show my ticket at the door and it was obvious from the looks we got, that most people assumed that my black husband was the reason we were seated at the President’s table. Black privilege?

For those of you who have said I wanted my children to identify as “white” under some white privilege rule, I can assure you that has never been the case. Need proof? When I called the Census Bureau upon receiving my 1990 census form, they told me my children were white because “children take the race of the mother.” That one phone call was enough for me to start Project RACE (Reclassify All Children Equally), so my own children and children like them could embrace their ENTIRE heritage, not just one or the other. In other words, if I had wanted my children to be classified as white, I already had that. I would not have worked 22 years to get it; it has always been about them being able to honor both of their races.

Project RACE is a cash poor organization. We used to charge a membership fee, but decided to end that so anyone could join, whether they had the membership fee or not. We made a decision very early neither to apply for, nor accept government grants or funding, because it would be a conflict of interest. In fact, government funding was obtained by groups similar to ours, but only after they agreed to what the government wanted them to do. They don’t even exist anymore.  In our 22 year history, we have never sold out and we never will.

My job is not an easy one. It doesn’t pay and has no perks. I have to deal with people who resent the work we do for many reasons. I have to put up with many politicians and policy makers people who don’t get it and I must do it with dignity and respect. The worst part of the job is hearing that a child has died because a bone marrow donor could not be found in time to save them; it is especially tragic when some people are telling others that because they read in a book that race doesn’t exist, so they don’t have to become donors to save multiracial children’s lives. As far as my reaction to the nay-sayers, I can take it, but you’d better be sure you have your facts right. Lives hang in the balance.

MULTIRACIAL Population Report

 2010 Census Shows Multiple-Race (Multiracial) Population

Grew Faster Than Single-Race Population

The 2010 Census showed that people who reported multiple races grew by a larger percentage than those reporting a single race. According to the 2010 Census brief The Two or More Races Population: 2010, the population reporting multiple races (9.0 million) grew by 32.0 percent from 2000 to 2010, compared with those who reported a single race, which grew by 9.2 percent.

Overall, the total U.S. population increased by 9.7 percent since 2000, however, many multiple-race groups increased by 50 percent or more.

The first time in U.S. history that people were presented with the option to self-identify with more than one race came on the 2000 Census questionnaire. Therefore, the examination of data from the 2000 and 2010 censuses provides the first comparisons on multiple-race combinations in the United States. An effective way to compare the multiple-race data is to examine changes in specific combinations, such as white and black, white and Asian, or black and Asian.

“These comparisons show substantial growth in the multiple-race population, providing detailed insights to how this population has grown and diversified over the past decade,” said Nicholas Jones, chief of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Racial Statistics Branch.

Changes in Race Combinations

--Four groups were the largest multiple-race combina­tions, each exceeding 1 million people in size, white and black (1.8 million), white and “some other race” (1.7 million), white and Asian (1.6 million) and white and American Indian and Alaska Native (1.4 million).

--Since 2000, two multiple-race groups exhibited the most significant changes — the white and black population, which grew more than 1 million and increased by 134 percent; and the white and Asian population, which grew by about 750,000 and increased by 87 percent.

Multiple-Race Populations by State

--There were 16 states where the people who reported more than one race exceeded 200,000 or more. The top three states (California, Texas and New York) each had a multiple-race population of half a million people or more.

--The percentage change in the multiple-race population was 70 percent or greater in nine states — South Carolina, North Carolina, Delaware, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Mississippi and South Dakota. Each state, with the exception of South Dakota, was a southern state. The multiple-race population grew by 50 percent or more in 22 additional states.

Multiple-Race Populations by Place

--Among places with populations of 100,000 or more, Urban Honolulu CDP, Hawaii (a census designated place) was the place with the highest proportion of multiple-race whites, multiple-race Asians, and multiple-race Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders. Lansing, Mich., was the place with the highest proportion of multiple-race blacks, and Anchorage, Alaska, was the place with the highest proportion of multiple-race American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Race Definitions
People who responded to the ques­tion on race by indicating only one race are referred to as the race-alone population, or the group who reported only one race. For exam­ple, people who marked only the “white” cat­egory on the census questionnaire constituted the white alone population. This population can be viewed as the minimum number of people reporting white.

The “two or more races” population refers to people who reported more than one of the six race categories, and this term is used in Census Bureau statistics as well as the tables and figures in the report. In the text of the report, we also refer to the “two or more races” population as the group that reported more than one race, or the multiple-race population. For example, people who reported they were both white and black or reported they were both black and Asian would be included in the multiple-race population. There are 57 possible mul­tiple-race combinations involving the five race categories and the category “some other race.” The report presents statistics for each of the 57 mul­tiple-race combinations.
Source: US Census Bureau

A Different Kind of Racism

A Different Kind of Racism

 

By Thera Naiman

In any campaign season, political enthusiasts look to the polls as a way to monitor candidates’ relative success. When a candidate pulls ahead by a few percentage points, speculation abounds: could it be due to a boost in the economy? A US Supreme Court decision? An effective new campaign ad? 

When President Obama’s lead over Republican challenger Mitt Romney waned in a recent poll of Virginian voters, state Senator Louise Lucas had another explanation for the results: race. Lucas, who is African-American, suggested that some voters support Romney simply because they “do not want to see anybody but a white person in a leadership position.” She continued: “I absolutely believe it’s all about race, and for the first time in my life I’ve been able to convince my children, finally, that racism is alive and well.”¹

 

The second part of Lucas’ quote illuminates a peculiar truth about people’s perspective on race in the United States. Why did she have to convince her children of the persistence of racism in U.S. society? Because of our country’s sordid history of race relations, many think of discrimination only as the blatant acts of hate committed by extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, whose racist intent is clear. 

This belief is reflected in our legal system, which primarily uses an intent standard that requires a plaintiff to prove a policy or action was intended to produce racially discriminatory results in order to show it is unconstitutional. A growing body of scientific research on implicit bias—the collection of unconscious mental processes that cause people to unknowingly act with racial bias – has shown that this emphasis on intent is flawed. Contrary to what Lucas’ children thought, implicit bias can have the same pernicious results as explicit racism. 

Many groups say that the research on implicit bias should help push the United States legal system to use a legal standard that focuses on effect rather than intent in deciding cases involving racial discrimination. Such a standard already exists: it is known as the disparate impact standard, and national advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Equal Justice Society (EJS) are lobbying on its behalf. Under this standard, practices that have an adverse effect on a minority group are discriminatory (and thus illegal), even if the practices in question are facially neutral. A disparate impact standard would enable victims of institutional discrimination to demand compensation for their injuries and would more accurately reflect the reality of how racial discrimination operates in our society.

Implicit bias: a scientific reality

Twenty-five years ago, Stanford professor Charles R. Lawrence III published a groundbreaking article² criticizing the intent standard established by Washington v. Davis³ for its failure to address unconscious racism. Lawrence’s argument was (and remains) powerful, but his evidence rested largely upon Freudian notions of the Id and the Ego. Since 1987, the scientific research supporting Lawrence’s thesis has become much more sophisticated. 

As neuroscience advances by leaps and bounds, scientists now have a better understanding of the mental processes that underlie implicit racism. Every day, our senses are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information. It would take an extraordinary amount of mental energy for our brains to process each new stimulus individually. Instead, the mind uses neural shortcuts, known as “schemas”, to sort stimuli into more general categories. This enables us to bring a cup of water up to our lips without first taking the time to consciously identify the object that we’re holding.⁴

^{Source: National Center for Youth Law. To read more go to:}

^{http://www.youthlaw.org/publications/yln/2012/jul_sep_2012/a_different_kind_of_racism/?utm_source=Youth+Law+News&utm_campaign=7b5f3bfc5f-YLN_July_Sept_20129_25_2012&utm_medium=email}  

Jewish Multiracial Families Grow

Jewish multiracial families grow in numbers and commitment By Electa Draper The Denver Post Three Denver mothers heading multiracial families are seeking to build on what it means to live in Jewish community. The community is changing. It's perhaps a surprising slice of demography that shows that 16 percent of metro Denver Jewish households headed by people ages 39 and younger are multiracial.Among all age groups, 9 percent are multiracial, according to the 2007 Metro Denver/Boulder Jewish Community Study. National organizations note that the trend is increasing through conversion, marriage and adoption. Last December, Jennifer Kraft adopted Tali Bamlak Kraft, from Ethiopia. Tali is almost 14 months old. "She's my gift, by the grace of God," Kraft said, explaining her daughter's name — a Hebrew word, Tali, for dew drops, and Bamlak, a name given her at an Ethiopian orphanage. It's an expression in the Amharic language of that country: "by the grace of God."Jennifer Kraft lived with her daughter in an Ethiopian hotel for three months waiting for the adoption process to be complete.  "It was important to me — intellectually — that she grow up with her Ethiopian identity and this whole other Jewish identity I would instill," Kraft said. "After being there with her, it also became viscerally important to me that she have both." Source: DenverPost.com Read more: Jewish multiracial families grow in numbers and commitment - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_21622879?source=commented-#ixzz27WJSz4qd

More academics for the Census Bureau

University of Washington Opens U.S. Census Bureau Research Data Center, Providing Access to Critical Social Science Trends, Information

September 24, 2012 Seattle— Officials from the U.S. Census Bureau and the University of Washington today announced the opening of a new Census Research Data Center (RDC) within the University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences. As one of only 15 RDCs in the country, the UW facility will provide qualified researchers access to extensive Census Bureau data including demographic, economic, public health and household surveys, and may accelerate critical research and discoveries.  

“There are fantastic benefits, “said Mark Ellis, Director of the NWCRDC and Professor of Geography at UW. Ellis believes the research data center will offer unmatched opportunities to generate a wide perspective on America’s social landscape, expand the collaboration between the US Census Bureau, local universities and academic researchers, and train a new generation of quantitative social scientists. “The Census Bureau runs a whole host of surveys—there are population surveys, but also surveys about housing, manufacturing, service jobs…a whole host of things designed to take the pulse of American society and American activity.”

”This Census Research Data Center will enable the research community across the Northwest to conduct statistical analyses that otherwise would not be possible on a wide range of research projects in the social sciences,” said Thomas Mesenbourg, the Census Bureau’s acting director. “We anticipate the creation of new products that leverage the value of Census Bureau data that has already been collected.” 

Previously, Pacific Northwest-based researchers in the fields of business, economics, geography, health services, population, public policy and sociology had to travel 800 miles to the nearest RDC at UC Berkeley to access the restricted data, placing a significant constraint on their research capacity.

Marc Baldwin, Assistant Director of Forecasting for the State of Washington Office of Financial Management, suggests many efforts currently underway will benefit directly from the presence of a local RDC. Proposed projects include a study of the influence of wage ordinances on levels of poverty and inequality; an examination of globalization’s effects on declining trade costs; an analysis of the impact of Tolling on Low-income and Minority Populations in the Puget Sound; and a study of the relation between socioeconomic status and obesity rates in Seattle-King County, to name a few.

The Northwest Regional Data Center is funded by the Washington State Office of Financial Management, the UW College of Arts and Sciences, the UW Provost’s Office, the UW School of Social Work and a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation.

Other cities with research data centers include Boston; Berkeley, Calif.; Los Angeles; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Ann Arbor, Mich.; New York; Ithaca, N.Y.; Durham, N.C.; and Minneapolis.

New Asian-American Review

New Asian-American Review Mixed-Race Initiative

Monday, 24 September 2012 09:32

The Asian-American Review is interested in collaborating with BAAS on their new Mixed-Race Initiative. The initiative has 3 phases: -a special journal issue on mixed race, set to debut in Fall 2013, that will combine work by writers, scholars, artists, activists, and more; -a community partnership/student internship program to develop the issue; and-an international multi-institution synchronous teaching program to run in Fall 2013 and Spring 2014 (for which AALR will serve as a hub to connect all participating classrooms, providing a shared curriculum to draw from and various opportunities for exchange between classrooms). Follow this link for additional details: http://aalrmag.org/mixed-race-initiative/ or download the PDF here.

Thanks to political organizing, scholarship, and the arts, not to mention media coverage, mixed race has become hyper-visible. So what’s next? AALR’s special issue on mixed race, due out in Fall 2013, won’t simply be a reexamination of race or a survey of mixed voices, important as both are. We envision our role as that of provocateur—inspiring new conversations and cross-pollinations, pushing into new corners.

All contributions to the issue will be collaborative, “mixed” in nature, bringing together folks across racial and ethnic boundaries, across disciplines, genres, regions, and generations. We’ll be soliciting work from artists and writers, historians and activists, race scholars and filmmakers, teachers and students, among others. The idea is a network of original projects that not only map out multiracialism past and present but also break new ground. Call for Proposals in Fall 2012.

The American Community Survey

 The American Community Survey

Did you know that the American Community Survey(ACS)  goes to 3.5 MILLION addresses per year? Think of it as an annual census between each 10-year census. The population areas have 65,000 people. About 7000 geographic areas are covered. If you have never been sent an ACS, you may be interested in looking at the questions at
http://www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/questionnaires/2012/Quest12.pdf

Thanks to one of the Project RACE Board of Directors for supplying the entire story. It is very important that the Department of Justice is considering allegations of racial harassment against a biracial student. 

Feds ask for Pine Creek School information

ByWes Venteicher - Enterprise Staff Writer

The Department of Justice is investigating allegations of race- and disability-based harassment at Pine Creek School.

In a recent letter to a school official, the DOJ requested records related to a biracial former student of the school and some “alleged harassers” there, along with information on a teacher who recently resigned in relation to bullying concerns. The DOJ also requested information on the school’s bullying policies.

The Sept. 11 letter is addressed to Pine Creek School District Board Chairwoman Jane Tecca and Billings-based attorney Jeff Weldon, who has represented the district during its own recent investigation of bullying.

The district this spring investigated a complaint from parent Pamela Goodwine, who alleged her biracial son had been bullied at the school. Goodwine is employed at the school as a custodian.

The investigation focused on third- through fifth-grade teacher Leah Shannon, who was accused of allowing bullying in her classroom. An outside investigator found that bullying was systemic at the school, affecting Goodwine’s son and others. As a result, the district negotiated a paid resignation with Shannon in August.

The September DOJ inquiry does not say who filed the race and disability complaint. The department did not respond by press time to a Thursday morning request for more information. 

The DOJ inquiry also requests correspondences and other information related to Goodwine’s employment at the school.

The letter stresses the inquiry is preliminary in nature and that it has not determined any violation of federal law has occurred.

Weldon said Wednesday he expects the school board’s recent action regarding Goodwine’s complaint — which in addition to negotiating Shannon’s resignation included revamping some school policies — will work in the district’s favor during the federal inquiry.

He said he has seen few federal investigations Montana schools in his career.

“In Montana, just because I think we’re a relatively small state, we don’t see a lot of them,” he said.

Pine Creek Superintendent Shawn Wiencek on Wednesday raised concerns about the costs to the district of continuing to deal with an issue she felt the district had resolved.

“It’s beyond my comprehension, at this juncture, how we’ll pay for this,” Wiencek said.

The district paid Shannon $71,000 to resign, and paid Weldon about $17,000 for his recent work. The small rural school has an enrollment of 22 students. 

Weldon, who the school pays $175 an hour, will oversee the response to the DOJ request.

The DOJ gave the school 30 days to respond to its inquiry.

Source: Contact The Livingston Enterprise:  401 South Main St. ​​ Livingston, Mt.  59047    (406) 222-2000  

DOJ investigates biracial student harassment

DOJ investigating race-based harassment at Pine Creek School

LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) — The Department of Justice is investigating a complaint of race- and disability-based harassment at the 22-student Pine Creek School in Park County.


The Livingston Enterprise reports the DOJ last week requested records related to a former student, whose mother describes as biracial, and some "alleged harassers," along with information about a former teacher.

The agency also sought the school's bullying policies.

The school district investigated a complaint this spring from custodian Pamela Goodwine who alleged her son had been bullied at school. The investigation focused on teacher Leah Shannon, who was accused of allowing bullying in her classroom. The district found that bullying was widespread at the school. The district negotiated a paid resignation with Shannon in August.

The DOJ inquiry does not say who filed the complaint.

Source: The Missoulian/AP

Life Expectancy for White Women

Life Spans Shrink for Least-Educated Whites in the U.S.

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

For generations of Americans, it was a given that children would live longer than their parents. But there is now mounting evidence that this enduring trend has reversed itself for the country’s least-educated whites, an increasingly troubled group whose life expectancy has fallen by four years since 1990.

S. Jay Olshansky, the lead researcher in a study that showed a life span drop based on education.

Multimedia

Researchers have long documented that the most educated Americans were making the biggest gains in life expectancy, but now they say mortality data show that life spans for some of the least educated Americans are actually contracting. Four studies in recent years identified modest declines, but a new one that looks separately at Americans lacking a high school diploma found disturbingly sharp drops in life expectancy for whites in this group. Experts not involved in the new research said its findings were persuasive. 

The reasons for the decline remain unclear, but researchers offered possible explanations, including a spike in prescription drug overdoses among young whites, higher rates of smoking among less educated white women, rising obesity, and a steady increase in the number of the least educated Americans who lack health insurance. 

The steepest declines were for white women without a high school diploma, who lost five years of life between 1990 and 2008, said S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the lead investigator on the study, published last month in Health Affairs. By 2008, life expectancy for black women without a high school diploma had surpassed that of white women of the same education level, the study found. 

White men lacking a high school diploma lost three years of life. Life expectancy for both blacks and Hispanics of the same education level rose, the data showed. But blacks over all do not live as long as whites, while Hispanics live longer than both whites and blacks. 

“We’re used to looking at groups and complaining that their mortality rates haven’t improved fast enough, but to actually go backward is deeply troubling,” said John G. Haaga, head of the Population and Social Processes Branch of the National Institute on Aging, who was not involved in the new study. 

The five-year decline for white women rivals the catastrophic seven-year drop for Russian men in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, said Michael Marmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity in London. 

The decline among the least educated non-Hispanic whites, who make up a shrinking share of the population, widened an already troubling gap. The latest estimate shows life expectancy for white women without a high school diploma was 73.5 years, compared with 83.9 years for white women with a college degree or more. For white men, the gap was even bigger: 67.5 years for the least educated white men compared with 80.4 for those with a college degree or better. 

The dropping life expectancies have helped weigh down the United States in international life expectancy rankings, particularly for women. In 2010, American women fell to 41st place, down from 14th place in 1985, in the United Nations rankings. Among developed countries, American women sank from the middle of the pack in 1970 to last place in 2010, according to the Human Mortality Database. 

The slump is so vexing that it became the subject of an inquiry by the National Academy of Sciences, which published a report on it last year. 

“There’s this enormous issue of why,” said David Cutler, an economics professor at Harvard who was an author of a 2008 paper that found modest declines in life expectancy for less educated white women from 1981 to 2000. “It’s very puzzling and we don’t have a great explanation.” 

And it is yet another sign of distress in one of the country’s most vulnerable groups during a period when major social changes are transforming life for less educated whites. Childbirth outside marriage has soared, increasing pressures on women who are more likely to be single parents. Those who do marry tend to choose mates with similar education levels, concentrating the disadvantage. 

Inklings of this decline have been accumulating since 2008. Professor Cutler’s paper, published in Health Affairs, found a decline in life expectancy of about a year for less educated white women from 1990 to 2000. Three other studies, by Ahmedin Jemal, a researcher at the American Cancer Society; Jennifer Karas Montez, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at Harvard; and Richard Miech, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver, found increases in mortality rates (the ratio of deaths to a population) for the least educated Americans. 

Professor Olshansky’s study, financed by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on an Aging Society, found by far the biggest decline in life expectancy for the least educated non-Hispanic whites, in large part because he isolated those without a high school diploma, a group usually combined with high school graduates. Non-Hispanic whites currently make up 63 percent of the population of the United States. 

Researchers said they were baffled by the magnitude of the drop. Some cautioned that the results could be overstated because Americans without a high school diploma — about 12 percent of the population, down from about 22 percent in 1990, according to the Census Bureau — were a shrinking group that was now more likely to be disadvantaged in ways besides education, compared with past generations. 

Professor Olshansky agreed that the group was now smaller, but said the magnitude of the drop in life expectancy was still a measure of deterioration. “The good news is that there are fewer people in this group,” he said. “The bad news is that those who are in it are dying more quickly.” 

Researchers, including some involved in the earlier studies that found more modest declines in life expectancy, said that Professor Olshansky’s methodology was sound and that the findings reinforced evidence of a troubling pattern that has emerged for those at the bottom of the education ladder, particularly white women. 

“Something is going on in the lives of disadvantaged white women that is leading to some really alarming trends in life expectancy,” said Ms. Montez of Harvard. 

Researchers offered theories for the drop in life expectancy, but cautioned that none could fully explain it. 

James Jackson, director of the Institute of Social Research at the University of Michigan and an author of the new study, said white women with low levels of education may exhibit more risky behavior than that of previous generations. 

Overdoses from prescription drugs have spiked since 1990, disproportionately affecting whites, particularly women. Professor Miech, of the University of Colorado, noted the rise in a 2011 paper in the American Sociological Review, arguing that it was among the biggest changes for whites in recent decades and that it appeared to have offset gains for less educated people in the rate of heart attacks. 

Ms. Montez, who studies women’s health, said that smoking was a big part of declines in life expectancy for less educated women. Smoking rates have increased among women without a high school diploma, both white and black, she said. But for men of the same education level, they have declined. 

This group also has less access to health care than before. The share of working-age adults with less than a high school diploma who did not have health insurance rose to 43 percent in 2006, up from 35 percent in 1993, according to Mr. Jemal at the American Cancer Society. Just 10 percent of those with a college degree were uninsured last year, the Census Bureau reported. 

The shift should be seen against the backdrop of sweeping changes in the American economy and in women’s lives, said Lisa Berkman, director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. The overwhelming majority of women now work, while fertility has remained higher than in European countries. For women in low-wage jobs, which are often less flexible, this could take a toll on health, a topic that Professor Berkman has a grant from the National Institute on Aging to study. 

Source: The New York Times

Multiracial Numbers from the Census Bureau

Below are the results of the American Community Survey (ACS) for multiracial (two or more races), released today by the Census Bureau for the year 2011. Think of it as the one year census obtained by sampling. It asks questions that used to be on the Census long form, but is more of a profile than a true count.

TOTAL NUMBER OF RACES REPORTED
Total population	8,721,818
One race	(X)
Two races	91.6%
Three races	7.8%
Four or more races	0.6%
SEX AND AGE
Total population	8,721,818
Male	49.9%
Female	50.1%
Under 5 years	15.6%
5 to 17 years	31.6%
18 to 24 years	12.3%
25 to 34 years	12.3%
35to 44 years	9.5%
45 to 54 years	8.3%
55 to 64 years	5.8%
65 to 74 years	2.8%
75 years and over	1.8%
Median age (years)	19.3
18 years and over	52.9%
21 years and over	46.9%
62 years and over	6.1%
65 years and over	4.6%
Under 18 years	4,110,923
Male	50.9%
Female	49.1%
18 years and over	4,610,895
Male	49.0%
Female	51.0%
18 to 34 years	2,143,959
Male	50.5%
Female	49.5%
35 to 64 years	2,064,394
Male	48.4%
Female	51.6%
65 years and over	402,542
Male	43.6%
Female	56.4%
RELATIONSHIP
Population in households	8,473,511
Householder or spouse	32.1%
Child	52.6%
Other relatives	9.9%
Nonrelatives	5.4%
Unmarried partner	1.8%
HOUSEHOLDS BY TYPE
Households	1,964,891
Family households	65.2%
With own children under 18 years	36.1%
Married-couple family	40.9%
With own children under 18 years	21.2%
Female householder, no husband present, family	18.1%
With own children under 18 years	11.7%
Nonfamily households	34.8%
Male householder	16.9%
Living alone	12.4%
Not living alone	4.5%
Female householder	18.0%
Living alone	14.3%
Not living alone	3.7%
Average household size	2.87
average family size	3.54
MARITAL STATUS
Population 15 years and over	5,166,156
Now married, except separated	35.0%
Widowed	3.3%
Divorced	10.4%
Separated	2.6%
Never married	48.7%
Male 15 years and over	2,540,580
Now married, except separated	35.3%
Widowed	1.4%
Divorced	8.9%
Separated	2.1%
Never married	52.3%
Female 15 years and over	2,625,576
Now married, except separated	34.6%
Widowed	5.2%
Divorced	11.9%
Separated	3.1%
Never married	45.2%
SCHOOL ENROLLMENT
Population 3 years and over enrolled in school	3,841,463
Nursery school, preschool	8.6%
Kindergarten	6.6%
Elementary school (grades 1-8)	44.7%
High school (grades 9-12)	19.5%
College or graduate school	20.6%
Male 3 years and over enrolled in school	1,907,602
Percent enrolled in kindergarten to grade 12	72.6%
Percent enrolled in college or graduate school	18.4%
Female 3 years and over enrolled in school	1,933,861
Percent enrolled in kindergarten to grade 12	69.1%
Percent enrolled in college or graduate school	22.6%
EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT
Population 25 years and over	3,541,922
Less than high school diploma	15.4%
High school graduate (includes equivalency)	24.3%
Some college or associate's degree	34.2%
Bachelor's degree	16.7%
Graduate or professional degree	9.5%
High school graduate or higher	84.6%
Male, high school graduate or higher	83.7%
Female, high school graduate or higher	85.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	26.2%
Male, bachelor's degree or higher	24.9%
Female, bachelor's degree or higher	27.4%
FERTILITY
Women 15 to 50 years	1,994,125
Women 15 to 50 years who had a birth in the past 12 months	112,631
Unmarried women 15 to 50 years who had a birth in the past 12 months	50,272
As a percent of all women with a birth in the past 12 months	44.6%
RESPONSIBILITY FOR GRANDCHILDREN UNDER 18 YEARS
Population 30 years and over	2,965,880
Living with grandchild(ren)	4.7%
Responsible for grandchild(ren)	40.0%
VETERAN STATUS
Civilian population 18 years and over	4,571,685
Civilian veteran	7.2%
DISABILITY STATUS
Total civilian noninstitutionalized population	8,575,563
With a disability	10.9%
Civilian noninstitutionalized population under 18 years	4,103,123
With a disability	4.9%
Civilian noninstitutionalized population 18 to 64 years	4,080,238
With a disability	13.5%
Civilian noninstitutionalized population 65 years and older	392,202
With a disability	45.3%
RESIDENCE 1 YEAR AGO
Population 1 year and over	8,451,855
Same house	79.6%
Different house in the U.S.	19.5%
Same county	12.5%
Different county	7.0%
Same state	3.9%
Different state	3.1%
Abroad	0.8%
PLACE OF BIRTH, CITIZENSHIP STATUS AND YEAR OF ENTRY
Native	7,731,773
Male	49.9%
Female	50.1%
Foreign born	990,045
Male	50.1%
Female	49.9%
Foreign born; naturalized U.S. citizen	486,162
Male	47.8%
Female	52.2%
Foreign born; not a U.S. citizen	503,883
Male	52.4%
Female	47.6%
Population born outside the United States	990,045
Entered 2000 or later	36.1%
Entered 1990 to 1999	25.1%
Entered before 1990	38.8%
WORLD REGION OF BIRTH OF FOREIGN BORN
Foreign-born population excluding population born at sea	990,045
Europe	3.8%
Asia	37.9%
Africa	3.0%
Oceania	1.9%
Latin America	51.9%
Northern America	1.3%
LANGUAGE SPOKEN AT HOME AND ABILITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH
Population 5 years and over	7,363,159
English only	77.3%
Language other than English	22.7%
Speak English less than "very well"	8.2%
EMPLOYMENT STATUS
Population 16 years and over	4,973,223
In labor force	64.8%
Civilian labor force	64.0%
Employed	54.3%
Unemployed	9.7%
Percent of civilian labor force	15.2%
Armed Forces	0.8%
Not in labor force	35.2%
Females 16 years and over	2,533,138
In labor force	61.7%
Civilian labor force	61.4%
Employed	52.5%
Unemployed	9.0%
Percent of civilian labor force	14.6%
COMMUTING TO WORK
Workers 16 years and over	2,666,307
Car, truck, or van - drove alone	69.7%
Car, truck, or van - carpooled	12.6%
Public transportation (excluding taxicab)	7.1%
Walked	4.0%
Other means	2.3%
Worked at home	4.2%
Mean travel time to work (minutes)	25.9
OCCUPATION
Civilian employed population 16 years and over	2,702,154
Management, business, science, and arts occupations	32.1%
Service occupations	22.6%
Sales and office occupations	26.1%
Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations	8.0%
Production, transportation, and material moving occupations	11.2%
Male civilian employed population 16 years and over	1,373,491
Management, business, science, and arts occupations	28.6%
Service occupations	20.2%
Sales and office occupations	19.2%
Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations	14.8%
Production, transportation, and material moving occupations	17.2%
Female civilian employed population 16 years and over	1,328,663
Management, business, science, and arts occupations	35.7%
Service occupations	25.1%
Sales and office occupations	33.2%
Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations	0.9%
Production, transportation, and material moving occupations	5.1%
INDUSTRY
Civilian employed population 16 years and over	2,702,154
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining	1.2%
Construction	5.0%
Manufacturing	8.0%
Wholesale trade	2.3%
Retail trade	13.6%
Transportation and warehousing, and utilities	4.6%
Information	2.5%
Finance and insurance, and real estate and rental and leasing	5.6%
Professional, scientific, and management, and administrative and waste management services	10.7%
Educational services, and health care and social assistance	22.4%
Arts, entertainment, and recreation, and accommodation and food services	13.5%
Other services (except public administration)	5.0%
Public administration	5.6%
CLASS OF WORKER
Civilian employed population 16 years and over	2,702,154
Private wage and salary workers	78.8%
Government workers	15.4%
Self-employed workers in own not incorporated business	5.6%
Unpaid family workers	0.1%
INCOME IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS (IN 2011 INFLATION-ADJUSTED DOLLARS)
Households	1,964,891
Median household income (dollars)	44,115
With earnings	82.0%
Mean earnings (dollars)	63,655
With Social Security income	21.2%
Mean Social Security income (dollars)	14,200
With Supplemental Security Income	7.9%
Mean Supplemental Security Income (dollars)	8,909
With cash public assistance income	5.2%
Mean cash public assistance income (dollars)	3,619
With retirement income	12.1%
Mean retirement income (dollars)	20,132
With Food Stamp/SNAP benefits	20.5%
Families	1,280,196
Median family income (dollars)	51,603
Married-couple family	62.7%
Median income (dollars)	68,859
Male householder, no spouse present, family	9.5%
Median income (dollars)	38,438
Female householder, no husband present, family	27.8%
Median income (dollars)	25,996
Individuals	8,721,818
Per capita income (dollars)	14,669
With earnings for full-time, year-round workers:
Male	941,210
Female	759,319
Mean earnings (dollars) for full-time, year-round workers:
Male	55,614
Female	44,031
Median earnings (dollars) full-time, year-round workers:
Male	41,608
Female	35,623
HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE
Civilian noninstitutionalized population	8,575,563
With private health insurance	58.7%
With public coverage	33.3%
No health insurance coverage	14.4%
POVERTY RATES FOR FAMILIES AND PEOPLE FOR WHOM POVERTY STATUS IS DETERMINED
All families	17.9%
With related children under 18 years	24.2%
With related children under 5 years only	24.3%
Married-couple family	9.0%
With related children under 18 years	11.9%
With related children under 5 years only	8.3%
Female householder, no husband present, family	37.4%
With related children under 18 years	44.7%
With related children under 5 years only	52.4%
All people	21.4%
Under 18 years	24.2%
Related children under 18 years	23.9%
Related children under 5 years	27.2%
Related children 5 to 17 years	22.3%
18 years and over	18.8%
18 to 64 years	19.3%
65 years and over	14.4%
People in families	19.3%
Unrelated individuals 15 years and over	35.4%
HOUSING TENURE
Occupied housing units	1,964,891
Owner-occupied housing units	50.1%
Renter-occupied housing units	49.9%
Average household size of owner-occupied unit	3.09
Average household size of renter-occupied unit	2.65
UNITS IN STRUCTURE
Occupied housing units	1,964,891
1-unit, detached or attached	58.9%
2 to 4 units	11.1%
5 or more units	24.6%
Mobile home, boat, RV, van, etc.	5.4%
YEAR STRUCTURE BUILT
Occupied housing units	1,964,891
Built 2000 or later	15.7%
Built 1990 to 1999	12.3%
Built 1980 to 1989	13.9%
Built 1960 to 1979	27.6%
Built 1940 to 1959	16.5%
Built 1939 or earlier	14.1%
VEHICLES AVAILABLE
Occupied housing units	1,964,891
None	13.1%
1 or more	86.9%
HOUSE HEATING FUEL
Occupied housing units	1,964,891
Gas	51.4%
Electricity	38.1%
All other fuels	7.2%
No fuel used	3.3%
SELECTED CHARACTERISTICS
Occupied housing units	1,964,891
No telephone service available	3.5%
1.01 or more occupants per room	5.4%
SELECTED MONTHLY OWNER COSTS AS A PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS
Housing units with a mortgage (excluding units where SMOC cannot be computed)	728,399
Less than 30 percent	55.5%
30 percent or more	44.5%
OWNER CHARACTERISTICS
Owner-occupied housing units	985,233
Median value (dollars)	177,400
Median selected monthly owner costs with a mortgage (dollars)	1,567
Median selected monthly owner costs without a mortgage (dollars)	422
GROSS RENT AS A PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLD INCOME IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS
Occupied units paying rent (excluding units where GRAPI cannot be computed)	914,472

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2011 American Community Survey