Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society

Richard T.Schaefer

doi:10.4135/9781412963879

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Appendix A: Data on Race and Ethnicity in the United States, 1820 to the Present

Introduction to Appendix A

The fourteen tables in this Appendix offer insight into the patterns of race and ethnicity, stretching back to 1820 with population projections into 2050. Even a casual examination of these data will confirm the dynamic nature of race and ethnicity in the United States in a period covering 230 years.

Immigrants, Refugees, and Naturalizations

The first six tables summarize data from the Office of Immigration Statistics of the Department of Homeland Security. Historical data are presented from 1820 by decade and for recent years annually of the number of people who are granted legal permanent resident status. This would consist of what most people consider to be immigrants—people who enter the country legally who intend to remain here and are not tourists, foreign students, or diplomats. This group of legal permanent residents would include those known as green card recipients. Once here, foreign students and refugees can apply to legal permanent resident status, and if it is granted, they then become immigrants.

Tables 1 and 2 may seem similar, but there is an important distinction between them. One identifies groups by virtue of “last residence” while the other gives “country of birth.” Many immigrants granted entry to the United States enter from residence in a country other than that of their birth. For example, Table 1 shows 83,628 immigrants with a last residence of China in 2006, and 4,514 from Hong Kong. Yet in Table 2 we see that 87,345 immigrants were born in China that same year while only 3,216 were actually born in Hong Kong.

Data on refugees (Tables 3 and 4) account for persons granted entry in order to avoid persecution in their country of origin, and they have applied for admission while still living outside the United States. Besides actual persecution, refugee status may be granted based on a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Refugees may typically bring spouses and children with them. The first official refugees were granted entry in 1948 in the aftermath of World War II and the domination of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union.

Naturalization data (Tables 5 and 6) refer to person's age 18 and older who become citizens of the United States. The naturalization process has changed over the generations, but recently legal permanent residents have been permitted to apply for citizenship status after five years in the country (although they are not required to do so). Typically, spouses of U.S. citizens may apply after 3 years. Foreign-born children automatically (that is, without applying) become citizens if one parent is a citizen or becomes one while they are still under 18 years of age. On July 30, 2007, the citizenship application fee was raised to $675. In 2006, 702,589 people were naturalized and therefore became eligible to vote and to apply for U.S. passports.

For all these tables relating to nation of origin or birth, the changing political boundaries and names of countries requires special caution as one examines data from further back in history.

The American Community Survey

A contemporary picture of U.S. racial and ethnic diversity can be found in our analysis of data from the American Community Survey (ACS). The 2006 ACS data are based on a U.S. Census sample of 3 million housing-unit addresses, collected from all 3,141 U.S. counties, American Indian and Alaska Native areas, and Native Hawaiian areas. These data were released August 27, 2007, and include profiles of many racial [Page 1435]and ethnic groups, such as African Americans, Chinese Americans, and Mexican Americans. In addition, profiles for 72 ancestry groups, from Afghani to Welsh, are also available.

The first data set taken from the ACS (Table 7) shows the major racial and ethnic groups for the United States as a whole as well as for the 24 largest metropolitan areas, ranked from largest to smallest. We have added one additional metropolitan area, Honolulu, ranked as number 53, because of its distinctive pattern of diversity compared to the rest of the nation.

Ranking tables from the ACS (Tables 8–12) provide an overview of data at the state level for the proportions of foreign-born, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian American, African American, or White non-Hispanic people in the 2006 U.S. population. Since the data are based on a sample, we show margins of error. These estimates offer a margin of error, that is, points at the upper and lower bounds of the confidence interval as “wings” or “arms” extending to either side of the estimated proportion or percentage. Typically, the span of this margin of error is less than 1 percent. So, for example, in Table 8, we see that California has 27.2 percent foreign-born population with a margin of error of +/-0.1 percent. This means that, if we surveyed all California residents instead of a sample of the population, the actual percent of foreign-born residents would most likely be between 27.1 and 27.3 percent.

Projections

Tables 13 and 14 use assumptions about the components of population change (fertility, mortality, and international migration) to project the population by race and ethnic status from the revised Census 2000 population of 282.1 million forward to 2010, 2020, 2030, 2040, and 2050. To formulate these projections, the U.S. Census Bureau makes assumptions about levels of in-migration (both legal immigration and unauthorized in-migration) of the foreign born to the United States and about rates of emigration from the United States.

While there are always reporting errors and assumptions in official data relating to nationality, race, and ethnicity, the U.S. Census data are unique in providing a picture that is so historically rich and detailed.

Richard T.Schaefer