US Racial Demographics Debate

Commenters debate the racial and ethnic makeup of the US population (e.g., whites ~70%, blacks ~13%, Asians ~5%) versus observed proportions in a specific dataset like school student bodies or diagrams, arguing over under- or over-representation of groups.

📉 Falling 0.3x Politics & Society
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Comments
20
Years Active
5
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#3589
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Keywords

NY PST045219 US AFAIK www.bls wikipedia.org POC TV www.ussc themarkup.org white population hispanic white people americans non white whites black races minority

Sample Comments

callinyouin Dec 19, 2016 View on HN

It might not be, but consider the demographics. Asian Americans make up 5.6% of the population (according to Wikipedia). In any of the countries listed, white/black people surely make up a much, much smaller percentage.

u32480932048 Feb 22, 2024 View on HN

Sure, but I see three 200 responses and a 400 - not 1/4 white people as statistically expected.

silisili Oct 20, 2021 View on HN

White people make up 73% of the US population. According to your own statistics, they are then underrepresented.

bobcostas55 Sep 9, 2016 View on HN

The US is ~73% white, it's hardly that different.

rootusrootus Jul 19, 2018 View on HN

Population size seems like a red herring. The real difference is that the U.S. has a significant number of non-white minorities.

ausjke Sep 11, 2014 View on HN

Is this correct? I thought the Hispanic and the black are like 40~% already, the picture still give you the impression that non-white is something just like 5%Also, there are only two melting-pots, one in NY and one at CA, per the picture.

nathanielks May 1, 2021 View on HN

That's a distinction without a difference as white people still make up the majority.

justaguyhere Oct 16, 2018 View on HN

70% are whiteAssuming these are American numbers, wouldn't you expect it? Wikipedia says 60% of Americans are White, and the number is higher if you include Hispanic people - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_AmericansSo it would make sense for white people to be the majority in any group, isn't it? Maybe there are exceptions, like certain sports.Just to

tastyfreeze Apr 26, 2025 View on HN

A quarter of US citizens are not white. Maybe POC isn't the best term to use here.

Karishma1234 May 2, 2018 View on HN

Would love to see the data split by race. My bet is that this is a white and asian people specific problem and not applicable to Hispanics and Blacks.