The U.S. continues to become a more ethnically and racially diverse country. New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau highlights new information collected during the 2020 census, including the addition of 200 new race and ethnic groups not tabulated in past censuses. 

The report finds that the Mexican population is the largest Hispanic origin group at approximately 6 million people, followed by Puerto Rican at 5.7 million and Salvadorian at 2.3 million. Meanwhile, Colombian and Honduran populations topped one million for the first time at 1.3 million and 1.1 million respectively.

The English made up the largest segment of the white population at 46.6 million, followed by German at 45 million, and Irish at 38.6 million. 

Among Black or African American respondents, African American was the largest detailed group reported, with 22.1 million people. The Sub-Saharan African population alone totaled 2.3 million, and the Sub-Saharan alone or in any combination population totaled 2.8 million. Broken down into ethnic groups, the populations are divided into Nigerian at 604,077, Ethiopian at 325,214, Somali at 221,043, and Ghanaian at 172,558. 

“These 2020 Census data illuminate the rich diversity across our nation,” said Rachel Marks, chief of the Census Bureau’s Racial Statistics Branch. 

Among all American Indian and Alaska Native groups, Aztec was the largest alone group at 387,122, while Cherokee was the largest alone or in any combination group at 1.5 million.
Yup’ik or Yup'ik Eskimo was the largest Alaska Native alone group at 9,026 and Tlingit was the largest Alaska Native alone or in any combination group at 22,601.

The Navajo Nation was the most common alone response with 315,086 people, and Cherokee the most common alone or in any combination response with 1.5 million people. 

Of the Asian community, Asian Indian was the largest alone group at 4.4 million and Chinese, except Taiwanese, the largest alone or in any combination group at 5.2 million. Individually the Asian community is made up of four key groups including Filipinos at 4.4 million, Vietnamese at 2.3 million, Korean at 2.0 million and Japanese at 1.6 million.

“We have this comprehensive picture thanks to the millions of people who responded to the census and provided their detailed racial, ethnic or tribal identity, and a special thanks to the stakeholders, researchers and tribal leaders who helped us improve how we collect these detailed data,” said Marks.