Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Census Data

The latest census 2010 data for Waterbury (and Connecticut) has been released. Here are the official numbers with my percentage calculations (the terminology is theirs):

Waterbury's Total Population:
110,366

White:
64,864 (59%)

Hispanic or Latino (of any race):
34,446 (31%)

Black or African American:
22,138 (20%)

Some Other Race:
15,610 (14%)


Two or More Races:
5,101 (5%)

Asian:
1,989 (2%)

American Indian and Alaska Native:
626 (0.6%)

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander:
38 (0.03%)


I'm left wondering about the fourteen percent who identified themselves as "Some Other Race". I wonder if this is related to the use of "Asian" as a category. In the U.K., Asian typically means someone from the Indian subcontinent, but in the U.S. it is typically used to refer to someone from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines, which leaves out anyone from the Indian subcontinent.

Here's part of an interactive map from the 2010 census website (visit their site for more):

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's likely that most of the "other race" people are Hispanics. Because the Census Bureau considers "Hispanic" to be an ethnicity rather than a race, people who identify as Hispanic (and choose that as their ethnicity) also have to select a race. More often than not their choice is "some other race."

People from the Indian subcontinent are classified as Asian for Census purposes even if they may not always feel much kinship with East Asians. It's possible some of them choose "other" for their race, but I wouldn't think too many.

Peter