The racial and ethnic demographics of the United States have changed drastically throughout its history.
Sources of data During the American colonial period, British colonial officials conducted censuses in some of the Thirteen Colonies that included enumerations by race.U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition, Part 2, Series Z 1–19. Chapter Z: Colonial and Pre-Federal Statistics . Washington, D.C., 1975. In addition, tax lists and other reports provided additional data and information about the racial demographics of the Thirteen Colonies during this time period.
People have been enumerated by race in every United States census since the first one in 1790. Collection of data on race and ethnicity in the United States census has changed over time, including addition of new enumeration categories and changes in definitions of those categories.
Historical trends Historical estimates of the pre-Columbian 1492 population of what is now the United States vary dramatically, ranging from only 900,000 to upwards of 18 million, with the majority of estimates falling between 2 million and 5 million.However, it is universally agreed upon by historians that the Indigenous population underwent a large decline following European contact, primarily due to Old World diseases to which natives lacked immunity, as well as violent conflict and genocide committed by European settlers. By 1800, the Native American population within the modern-day borders of the United States had declined to around 600,000, compared to a combined white and black population of over 5 million at the time. The Native American population continued to decline steadily over the course of the 19th century, reaching a low of around 250,000 between 1890 and 1900.
The transatlantic slave trade had its roots prior to the discovery of the Americas. By 1471, Portuguese navigators hoping to tap the fabled Saharan gold trade had reconnoitered the West African coast as far as the Niger Delta, and traded European commodities for local crafts as well as slaves, the latter which turned out to be highly lucrative. By 1490, more than 3,000 slaves a year were transported to Portugal and Spain from Africa. Following the Spanish discovery of the New World in 1492, Spanish and Portuguese sailors began transporting enslaved Africans to their new colonies in the Caribbean, marking the start of the transatlantic slave trade. The first permanent British settlement in what would become the United States was established at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. The first African slaves were imported to the colony of Jamestown around the year 1620, marking the beginning of the slave trade in what would become the United States. In the period between 1620 and 1866, around 388,000 slaves in total were shipped to British colonies in Northern America. African Americans (Blacks) made up almost one-fifth of the United States population in 1790, but following the US abolition of the slave trade in 1808, their percentage of the total U.S. population declined in almost every census until 1930, when they reached a low point of just under 10% of the population. From at least 1790 until the start of World War I, the overwhelming majority (around ninety percent) of African Americans lived in the Southern United States. In addition, before 1865, the overwhelming majority of African Americans were slaves. The Great Migration throughout the 20th century (starting from World War I) resulted in more than six million African Americans leaving the Southern U.S. (especially rural areas) and moving to other parts of the United States (especially to urban areas) due to the greater economic/job opportunities, less anti-black violence/lynchings, and a smaller amount of segregation/discrimination there. Due to the Great Migration, many large cities outside of the former Confederacy(such as New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Cleveland) experienced huge increases in the African American percentage of their total population.
Whites (including Non-Hispanic Whites) have historically made up the overwhelming majority (usually between eighty and ninety percent) of the total United States population, with African-Americans making up the overwhelming majority of the non-white population for most of the nation's history. The United States historically had few Hispanics and Asians, especially before the late 20th century. Most Asian Americans historically lived in the Western United States. The Hispanic and Asian populations of the United States have rapidly increased in the late 20th and 21st centuries, following the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which repealed racially motivated national origin quotas that had severely limited immigration from countries outside of Northwestern Europe. The rise of Asian and Hispanic populations, and declining immigration from Europe in the late 20th century, has seen a commensurate decline in the share of non-Hispanic Whites in the country, from over 83% of the population in 1970 to around 58% in 2020. The Native American population has seen a significant rise since 1970, the first census year where respondents could self-identify their own race instead of having it assigned by an enumerator, as individuals of partial Native American descent who were previously classified by enumerators as white or black began to self-identify as Native American. The Native American population rose from around 600,000 in 1970, to over 3 million in 2020, further buoyed by immigration from Indigenous Mexican and other Indigenous Latin American communities, with around a third of the Native American population in 2020 identifying as Hispanic.
The African American percentage of the U.S. population slowly increased between 1940 and 1990, after reaching a low point of less than 10% in 1930. However, since 1990, the share of African American population has held mostly steady at around 12% of the population, seeing a slight decline in the 2020 census.
Historical data for all races and for Hispanic origin (1610–2020)
The United States census enumerated Whites and Blacks since 1790, Asians and Native Americans since 1860 (though all Native Americans in the U.S. were not enumerated until 1890), "some other race" since 1950, and "two or more races" since 2000. The category of Pacific Islanders (including Native Hawaiians) was enumerated separately from Asians for the first time in 2000. Mexicans were automatically counted as White in every census from 1790 to 1960, except for 1930, unless individually deemed by enumerators as being "definitely Indian or of other non-white races." Hispanics of all races (as well as the Non-Hispanic White population) have been enumerated as an ethnic category since 1970. Some earlier estimates of the Hispanic population exist, with the population of White Hispanics estimated by the Census Bureau based on the "white population of Spanish mother tongue" in the 1940 census. Limited estimates for the Hispanic (and Non-Hispanic White) population were also made for certain years before 1940 (as well as for 1950 and 1960).
The Census Bureau has announced that for the upcoming 2030 Census, the 'race' and 'ethnicity' categories will be combined into one question, meaning that Hispanics will be classified in the same way as the already recognized racial categories, rather than as a separate ethnic classification as they were from 1970-2020. Additionally, the Census Bureau has also announced the introduction of a new "Middle Eastern or North African" racial category for the 2030 census. Middle Eastern Americans were historically counted as White on every census from 1950-2020. +Racial and Ethnic Demographics of the Thirteen Colonies (Total Numbers) Between 1610 and 1750Race/Ethnic Group161016201630164016501660167016801690170017101720173017401750Total Population3502,3024,64626,63450,36875,058111,935151,507210,372250,888331,711466,185629,445905,5631,170,760White3502,2824,58626,03748,76872,138107,400144,536193,643223,071286,845397,346538,424755,539934,340White (%)100.0%99.1%98.7%97.8%96.8%96.1%95.9%95.4%91.9%88.9%86.4%85.2%85.5%83.4%79.8%Black (also called Negro)020605971,6002,9204,5356,97116,72927,81744,86668,83991,021150,024236,420Black/Negro (%)0.0%0.9%1.3%2.2%3.2%3.9%4.1%4.6%8.1%11.1%13.6%14.8%14.5%16.6%20.2%
+Racial and Ethnic Demographics of the Thirteen Colonies and the United States (Total Numbers) Between 1760 and 1840Race/Ethnic Group176017701780179018001810182018301840Total Population1,593,6252,148,0762,780,3693,929,2145,308,4837,239,8819,638,45312,860,70217,063,353White1,267,8191,688,2542,204,9493,172,0064,306,4465,862,0737,866,79710,532,06014,189,705White %79.678.679.380.781.181.081.681.983.2Black (also called Negro)325,806459,822575,420757,2081,002,0371,377,8081,771,6562,328,6422,873,648Black/Negro %20.421.420.719.318.919.018.418.116.8 +Racial and Ethnic Demographics of the United States (Total Numbers) Between 1850 and 1920Race/Ethnic Group18501860187018801890190019101920Total Population23,191,87631,443,32138,558,37150,155,78362,947,71475,994,57591,972,266105,710,620White19,553,06826,922,53733,589,37743,402,97055,101,25866,809,19681,731,95794,820,915Black3,638,8084,441,8304,880,0096,580,7937,488,6768,833,9949,827,76310,463,131American Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut44,02125,73166,407248,253237,196265,683244,437Asian and Pacific Islander34,93363,254105,613109,527114,189146,863182,137Hispanic (of any race)116,943155,000393,555503,189797,9941,286,154Non-Hispanic White19,438,45143,065,67966,374,31781,043,24893,604,612
+Racial and Ethnic Demographics of the United States (Total Numbers) Between 1930 and 2020Race/Ethnic Group1930194019501960197019801990200020102020Total Population122,775,046131,669,275150,697,361179,323,175203,210,158226,545,805248,709,873281,421,906308,745,538331,449,281White110,286,740118,214,870134,942,028158,831,732178,119,221188,371,622199,686,070211,460,626223,553,265204,277,273Black11,891,14312,865,51815,042,28618,871,83122,539,36226,495,02529,986,06034,658,19038,929,31941,104,200American Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut332,397333,969343,410551,669795,1101,420,4001,959,2342,475,9562,932,2483,727,135Asian and Pacific Islander264,766254,918321,033980,3371,526,4013,500,4397,273,66210,641,83315,214,26520,576,015Some other race48,60487,606230,0646,758,3199,804,84715,359,07319,107,36827,915,715Two or more races6,826,2289,009,07333,848,943Hispanic (of any race)2,021,8203,231,4095,814,7848,920,94014,608,67322,354,05935,305,81850,477,59462,080,044Non-Hispanic White116,261,189131,805,405153,217,498169,622,593180,256,366188,128,296194,552,774196,817,552191,697,647Non-Hispanic Black22,084,42826,401,17329,216,29333,947,83737,685,84839,940,338Non-Hispanic Native768,2511,325,6551,793,773 2,068,8832,247,0982,251,699Non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islander1,489,6483,334,4296,968,35910,476,67814,946,70020,240,737Non-Hispanic Other142,134916,509249,093467,770604,2651,689,833Non-Hispanic Two or more4,602,1465,966,48113,548,983
+Racial and Ethnic Demographics of the United States (Percentages) Between 1790 and 1900Race/Ethnic Group179018001810182018301840185018601870188018901900White80.7%81.1%81.0%81.6%81.9%83.2%84.3%85.6%87.1%86.5%87.5%87.9%Black19.3%18.9%19.0%18.4%18.1%16.8%15.7%14.1%12.7%13.1%11.9%11.6%American Indian, Eskimo, and Aleut0.1%0.1%0.1%0.4%0.3%Asian and Pacific Islander0.1%0.2%0.2%0.2%0.2%Hispanic (of any race)0.5%0.8%0.7%Non-Hispanic White83.8%85.9%87.3%