OLMIS

by Brooke Jackson-Winegardner
Published Aug-10-2011

Racial Diversity Has Increased Oregon's Hispanic Population has Grown Some Counties More Diverse Than Others Conclusion

When Oregon became a state in 1859, there were around 52,500 residents, and more than 99 percent of the population was white. Since then, Oregon's population has changed significantly in terms of racial and ethnic diversity. Most of this change has occurred in recent years.

Oregon's population has become more racially diverse over the last two decades. According to the 1990 Decennial Census, whites made up 92 percent of the population, blacks accounted for 2 percent of the population, and all other races (including Asians, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders) made up the remaining 6 percent. In all, Oregon had 2.6 million white residents in 1990.

The number of whites in the population has risen since 1990, but so has the number of people of other races. Although there were about 325,000 more whites in 2000 than in 1990, their share of the total population had dropped to 87 percent. By 2010, the portion of whites was almost 84 percent.

Meanwhile, blacks still accounted for almost 2 percent of the state's population in 2010, and other races made up the remaining 15 percent (Graph 1). In all, Oregon had about 626,500, residents (out of 3.8 million) who were not white in 2010 - more than triple the number in 1990 (205,500).

Oregon has a high concentration of whites compared with the national average, as 72 percent of the United States population is white compared to Oregon's 84 percent. Oregon also has a smaller concentration of blacks (2%) compared to the national average of 13 percent. Oregon, though, has about the same concentration of all other races as the national average of 15 percent.

Oregon's population has also grown more ethnically diverse, as seen in the growth of the Hispanic population over the last two decades. In 1990, Hispanics - who can be of any race - made up 4 percent of the state's population. By 2000, that figure had grown to 8 percent and in 2010, it had grown to almost 12 percent.

More than 16 percent of the United States' population was Hispanic in 2010, indicating that Oregon still has a small Hispanic population relative to the national average. Nevertheless, Oregon's Hispanic population has grown at a faster rate (63%) than the national average (43%) from 2000 to 2010.

Even though 12 of Oregonians were of Hispanic heritage in 2010, the concentration of Hispanics varied significantly by county (Figure 1). The counties with the smallest concentration of Hispanic residents were Wallowa (2.2%), Grant (2.8%), Baker (3.3%), and Union (3.9%). The counties with the largest concentration of Hispanic residents were Malheur (31.5%) and Morrow (31.3%), followed by Hood River (29.5%). Marion County had the highest Hispanic population ratio (24.3%) of any metropolitan area and was more than double the state average.

Racial diversity varied by county in 2010. For instance, of the 1,870 residents of Gilliam County, about 1,600 (95.2%) were white, making Gilliam one of the least racially diverse counties in Oregon. Likewise, in Wallowa County, 96 percent of the 7,000 residents were white.

Meanwhile, one of Gilliam's neighbors to the south had the most racially diverse population in Oregon: Jefferson County. About 69 percent of Jefferson's 21,700 residents in 2010 were white. The next-largest racial group in Jefferson County was Native American, which accounted about 17 percent of the total population. It is likely that most of these residents live on the Warm Springs Reservation in the northern part of the county. The remaining 4 percent of Jefferson's population were people of all other races.

The population patterns of the Portland area (Clackamas, Columbia, Multnomah, Washington and Yamhill) are usually very similar to the statewide average. In terms of ethnic diversity, it has the same ratio of Hispanics (12%) as the state average. In terms of racial diversity, however, Portland's population was more varied than the average in 2010, as 80 percent of the population was white. The next-largest group was Asian American, which accounted for 6 percent of the area's population. All told, more than three-quarters of Oregon's Asian population lived in the Portland area in 2010. Blacks had the third largest share of Portland's population (3%), and all other races accounted for the remaining 11 percent.

Oregon's population was clearly more diverse in 2010 than when it first became a state, and much of the change has occurred during the last two decades. Oregon will likely continue to grow in size and diversity in the years to come.