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Race Maps

Racial Category Definitions for Maps

The maps below show race and Hispanic data by census tract from the U. S. Census tabulations for 1980, 1990 and 2000. They use their major category breakdowns. The race and Hispanic designations are from separate questions that allowed persons of Hispanic ethnicity to choose any of the Census-specified racial categories.

Census Tract	Year
Minority Population Distribution - 7 County	1980	1990	2000
Black/African American Population Distribution - 7 County	1980	1990	2000
Hispanic Population Distribution - 7 County	1980	1990	2000
Asian Population Distribution - 7 County	1980	1990	2000
American Indian Population Distribution - 7 County	1980	1990	2000
Two or More Races - 7 County			2000

1980 and 1990 Census

The 1980 and 1990 census provided a number of specific racial groups from which respondents were asked to choose. The data were then aggregated into the following major categories for most of the tabulations. These categories are:

Black American Indian, Eskimo or Aleut Asian or Pacific Islander White Other

The Census data is based on self-identification, and respondents were allowed to choose only one race in 1980 and 1990. Those not finding a choice that they felt accurately described their race could choose “other” and specify a different race. A high proportion of those choosing “other” were persons of Hispanic ethnicity who did not consider themselves members of any of the specified major race categories

Census 2000

The form used in 2000 was similar to those used in past censuses, except that respondents were allowed to identify more than one race. They could, in fact, choose any or all of the specified choices. These were then summarized to 6 major categories or combinations thereof. One of these was Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders, previously part of the Asian group. For consistency, the 2000 data for the maps combines this group with the Asian group.

Even though most people only chose one race in 2000, having a multi-race group makes comparisons over time difficult. These maps have attempted to retain consistency over time for the individual race groups. This was done using results from a survey done by the National Institute for Health Statistics (NIHS). In the survey NIHS specifically asked people who said they were multi-race to pick the one race they most identified with. The impact on the maps is minimal since only 2.2 percent of the population were in the two or more race category. Using the proportions developed by the NIHS survey provides reasonable results for the Twin Cities except for the American Indian population. Using that proportional split results in a higher percentage of people of Native American and white ancestry choosing white than is likely for the Twin Cities. This is because the NIHS survey covers many areas with a very low percentage of American Indian where those of mixed Indian race do not identify with their Indian ancestry. This same problem was true of other areas with large concentrations of urban Indians such as Seattle and Phoenix.

A map showing persons of mixed race ancestry is included for 2000, the first time such data was collected. In the Twin Cities 7-county metro area about 58,000 persons indicated two or more races in the census.

For the overall minority maps, all persons who identified themselves as all or part racial minority or as Hispanic (or other related terms such as Latino or Chicano) on the Hispanic ethnicity question were included as minorities. In the census, that includes everyone not identified as “white alone, not Hispanic.