Modern Trends in Dynamics of Racial Diversity in the U.S.

Abstract

A number of studies show that the racial composition of the US population has become increasingly diverse over the past decades. The process of racial diversification is heterogeneous both geographically and in terms of which racial groups are the main contributors to the process. Based on data from the US Census Bureau for 2000, 2010, and 2020, American society is indeed becoming more diverse at the county level. At the same time, there are a number of geographical patterns regarding the development of this process. Thus, the most diverse states include the states of the American South, and the least diverse are the Midwestern states with a predominance of white population. Diversity gains are also unevenly distributed, with peak gains in the counties of the Midwest (low base effect), the American South (due to Hispanic migration), and within the Boswash metropolitan area. At the same time, south and west Texas, where Hispanics make up the majority of the population, has seen a decline in racial diversity. It was revealed that Hispanics make the main contribution to the racial diversification of the US population, the white population is the most static, the contributions of African Americans and Asian Americans are insignificant. It was found that a sharp increase in the number of the group "two or more races" is more associated with a change in the racial self-identification of the white population than with real diversification. The real "melting pots" where the growth of the "two or more races" group is associated with racial diversification are the large urban agglomerations of the American South.