Occasionally American Indian: Joining, Leaving, and Staying in the American Indian/Alaska Native Race Category between 2000 and 2010

Carolyn A. Liebler, University of Minnesota
Renuka Bhaskar, U.S. Census Bureau

The number of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) responses in successive censuses has increased for decades. We decompose the newest decennial increase using uniquely-suited linked data which allows us to know a person’s race response(s) in both years. For example, we describe the characteristics of those who self-reported single-race non-Hispanic AIAN in both censuses (727,000), and compare them to those who joined that population (308,000) and those who left that population by 2010 (299,000). We test prior ideas about who joins, stays, or leaves the populations of single-race and multiple-race Hispanic and non-Hispanic AIANs. For example, we ask whether most “new” AIAN people previously reported single-race white with AIAN ancestry, are well-educated, and/or are living in non-traditionally AIAN areas. We provide substantial information about previously unseen groups – those who joined or left the AIAN response group, and those who remained AIAN between 2000 and 2010.