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Matt Kinghorn
Indiana Business Research Center
kinghorn@indiana.edu
812-855-5507

Carol Rogers
Indiana Business Research Center
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Last modified: Thursday, February 10, 2011

IU center: Indiana's Census shows increasing diversity

Editors: A news release with information about population growth and decline in Indiana regions, counties and cities can be seen at https://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/17319.html.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Feb. 10, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The latest 2010 Census data released today (Feb. 10) for Indiana portray a state with greater diversity than ever before, according to the Indiana Business Research Center at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business.

Census 2010

By the numbers, the majority of Indiana's 6,483,802 residents are white (5.47 million), followed by African-Americans (591,397) and Asians (102,474). All other single race categories such as Native American, Hawaiian or Pacific Islander combined to number 194,124. The Hispanic category is considered an ethnicity so Indiana's 389,707 Hispanic residents can be of any race.

The Hispanic population showed the most dramatic growth of any race or ethnic group in the state with an 81.7 percent increase since the last census in 2000. In fact, the Hispanic population alone accounted for 43 percent of Indiana's total growth over this period.

The number of Hoosiers identifying themselves as multi-race now number 127,901 -- a 69 percent increase over the decade. At 73.3 percent, the state's Asian population grew at an even faster rate and the African-American or black population is up 16 percent. In contrast, Indiana's white population grew at a more modest 2.8 percent.

The result of these varying growth trends: The white population's share of Indiana's total dipped to 84.3 percent in 2010 from 87.5 percent in 2000. Over the same period, the state's black population climbed from 8.4 percent of the total to 9.1 percent. Indiana's Hispanic residents now account for 6 percent of the state's population compared to 3.5 percent a decade ago.

Census Data

Increases in Hoosier Population by Race: Census 2000 to Census 2010

The result of these varying growth trends: The white population's share of Indiana's total dipped to 84.3 percent in 2010 from 87.5 percent in 2000. Over the same period, the state's black population climbed from 8.4 percent of the total to 9.1 percent. Indiana's Hispanic residents now account for 6 percent of the state's population compared to 3.5 percent a decade ago.

"While Indiana's racial and ethnic makeup has shifted, the state remains less diverse than the nation," said Matt Kinghorn, IBRC state demographer. "Compared to the most recent population estimates for the nation (2009), the share of Indiana's population that is white is well above the U.S. mark of 79.6 percent. These data sets also reveal that the Hispanic proportion of the U.S. population is roughly two and a half times greater than in Indiana."

Local Population Shifts

The Hispanic population grew most rapidly in Hendricks (277 percent increase), Union (273 percent), Shelby (231 percent) and Hamilton (224 percent) counties. In the case of each of these counties, however, the Hispanic population still represents a relatively small proportion of the county total compared to the state average.

Most of the counties with the greatest concentration of Hispanic residents are found in northern Indiana. In Lake, Elkhart, Clinton and Cass counties, more than 12 percent of the population is Hispanic. These four are followed by Noble (9.6 percent), Marion (9.3 percent), Porter (8.5 percent) and Marshall (8.4 percent) counties.

Many counties that once had small African-American or black populations saw substantial increases this decade. This is particularly noticeable in suburban Indianapolis counties. Hamilton County's black population increased from roughly 2,800 in 2000 to 9,603 in 2010. The black population of Hendricks County increased more than sixfold over the decade and the number of black residents in Hancock County grew from 74 in 2000 to 1,452 in April 2010.

As with the Hispanic population, however, the number of black residents relative to the total in these counties is still well below the state average. In terms of absolute numbers, Marion County and Lake County combine to account for 62 percent of Indiana's black population.

Marion County leads the state with an Asian population of 18,314, followed by Hamilton County with 13,175 Asian residents. The university communities of Tippecanoe County (6.2 percent of all residents) and Monroe County (5.2 percent) had the highest concentrations of Asian residents, followed by Hamilton County (4.8 percent) and Bartholomew County (3.4 percent).

As with other race and ethnic groups, suburban counties in the Indianapolis area had some of the greatest Asian population growth rates.

The purpose of today's release of census data is to provide Indiana officials with the data needed to revise legislative district boundaries. Complete data at various levels of geography can be found at either www.stats.indiana.edu or https://factfinder2.census.gov/main.html. The U.S. Census Bureau will release data with greater age, sex, race and ethnicity detail later this summer.

The IBRC is part of a national network of State Data Centers and acts as the official state representative to the Census Bureau on matters relating to the census and population estimates, with funding support from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. The IBRC also develops and maintains STATS Indiana, the award-winning, state-supported web service (www.stats.indiana.edu).