Where is racial diversity growing in the US? 

Every state and Washington, DC became more diverse to varying degrees between 2010 and 2020. There are methods for measuring diversity — the Census Bureau's uses probabilities based on racial and ethnic makeup. Specifically, the probability that two randomly chosen people in a given place belong to different racial and ethnic groups. The higher the probability, the higher that location's diversity.

USAFacts used this measurement and data from the 2010 and 2020 censuses to see where the nation is becoming more — or less — diverse.

• Hawaii is the most diverse state, with Asian, white, and multiracial people each representing more than 20% of its population. Maine is the least diverse: it's the only state where non-Hispanic white people are more than 90% of the population.

• 2020's least diverse county was Starr County on the Texas-Mexico border. With a 98% Hispanic population, there's less than a one in 20 chance that two random people in the county come from one of eight different racial or ethnic groups.

• One hundred and twenty-four million people (or 37% of Americans) live in counties that are more diverse than the US overall. New York's Queens County is the largest of these diverse counties: it's home to more than 2.4 million people with no single racial or ethnic group making up more than 28% of the population.

Click here to see how your state changed over 10 years.*

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10 facts for Women's History Month 

Congress passed a resolution designating March as Women's History Month in 1987. However, the month has its origins in an event that happened more than 100 years earlier, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over poor working conditions in March 1857.

This year, USAFacts collected data points from various aspects of American life for a snapshot of how women are doing across the United States. This article pulls together engaging visuals on a wide range of topics, including: 

• The current Congress started with 123 women as representatives and delegates in the House, while the Senate had 26 women. This is double the number of women serving 20 years prior. 
   
• Women earned 237,874 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics degrees in the 2017–2018 academic year, up from 143,018 in 2008–2009. Despite this growth, women accounted for 32.4% of STEM degree recipients in the 2017–2018 school year.

• Women voted at a rate of 63% in the 2020 presidential election, compared to 59.5% for men. Women have voted at a higher rate than men in presidential elections since the 1980s. 

The share of US total petroleum and crude oil imports from OPEC has generally declined since 1977. By 2020, OPEC's share of US total petroleum imports was about 11%.

Correction
Last week's newsletter misstated what NATO member countries contribute to the alliance. Countries do not give 2% of their of GDP to fund NATO. Rather, members agree to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on national defense or military spending. Not all member countries are presently hitting that target. Last year, nine members exceeded the 2%-of-GDP target for defense spending. Read more about NATO here.


*The Census Bureau regularly releases statistics assessing the accuracy of its measures. The Bureau acknowledged that the 2020 census notably undercounted some racial and ethnic groups and overcounted others. The agency said it will use these findings to understand the 2020 count further and to prepare for 2030. The Bureau says the recent assessment still shows statistical evidence that the quality of the 2020 census total population count is consistent with recent censuses.