OLMIS

by Brooke Jackson-Winegardner
Published Sep-21-2009

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. In 1990, white people made up 95 percent of the population, black people accounted for 2 percent of the population, and all other races (including Asians, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders) made up the remaining 3 percent. In all, Oregon had nearly 2.7 million white people in 1990.

The number of white people in the population has risen since 1990, but so has the number of people of other races. Although there were about 436,000 more white people in 2000 than in 1990, their share of the total population had dropped to 91 percent. By 2008, the portion of white people was 90 percent.

Meanwhile, black people still accounted for 2 percent of the state's population in 2008, and other races made up the remaining 8 percent (Graph 1). In all, Oregon had about 374,000 residents who were non-white or of multiple racial groups in 2008 - more than double the number of non-white residents (160,000) in 1990.

Oregon has a very high concentration of white people compared to the national average, as only 80 percent of the United States population is white. Oregon also has a smaller concentration of black people compared to the national average of 13 percent. Oregon has the same concentration of all other races as the national average (7%).

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, Hispanic people - who can be of any race - made up 4 percent of the state's population. By 2000 this figure had grown to 8 percent, and in 2008 it was 11 percent.

More than 15 percent of the United States population was Hispanic in 2008, indicating that Oregon still has a small Hispanic population relative to the national average. Nevertheless, Oregon's Hispanic population has grown at about the same rate as the national average.

Racial and ethnic diversity varied by county in 2008. For instance, of the 1,750 residents of Gilliam County, about 1,700 (97.5%) were white, making Gilliam the least racially diverse county in Oregon. Wallowa County was fairly similar, as 97.3 percent of its 6,800 residents were white.

Meanwhile, one of Gilliam's neighbors to the south boasted the most racially diverse population in Oregon: Jefferson County. Only 79 percent of Jefferson's 20,500 residents in 2008 were white. The next-largest racial group in Jefferson County was Native American, which accounted for 16 percent of the total population. It's likely that most of these residents live on the Warm Springs Reservation in the northern part of the county. The remaining 5 percent of Jefferson's population were people of all other races.

The population patterns of Portland - Oregon's largest metropolitan area - are usually very similar to the statewide average. In terms of racial diversity, however, Portland's population was somewhat more varied than the average in 2008, as only 87 percent of the population was white. The next-largest group was Asian American, which accounted for nearly 6 percent of the area's population. All told, about three-quarters of Oregon's Asian population lived in the Portland area in 2008. Blacks had the third largest share of Portland's population (3%), and all other races accounted for the remaining 4 percent.

Ethnically, the Portland area's population was right in line with the statewide average, as 11 percent of Portland's population was Hispanic in 2008. The counties with the smallest concentration of Hispanic residents were Wallowa (2.8%), Grant (3.2%), and Union (3.3%). The county with the largest concentration of Hispanic residents was Morrow (29.8%), followed by Malheur (27.8%) and Hood River (26.7%). As shown in Figure 1, the concentration of Hispanic people varied significantly across counties in 2008.

Oregon's population was clearly more diverse in 2008 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.