2010 Census Shows More than Half of Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders Report Multiple Races

In honor of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Census Bureau has released highlights of the latest data on our nation's Asian, Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander populations from the 2010 Census and 2007 Survey of Business Owners. Some of the latest statistics show:

The Commerce Department’s U.S. Census Bureau today released new data on Native Hawaiian- and Other Pacific Islander-owned businesses from the 2007 Survey of Business Owners. The number of Native Hawaiian- and Other Pacific Islander-owned businesses in the United States increased 31.1 percent between 2002 and 2007 to 37,957 businesses. These firms generated $6.5 billion in receipts in 2007, a 51.6 percent increase from 2002. This compares to a 17.9-percent increase in the total number of U.S. businesses between 2002 and 2007 and a rise in total business receipts of 32.9 percent.

Commerce's U.S. Census Bureau counts every resident in the United States. It is mandated by Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution and takes place every 10 years. The data collected by the decennial census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and is also used to distribute billions in federal funds to local communities.Yesterday, the Census Bureau held "Profile America Forum on the Asian Population," a presentation on the release of a 2010 Census brief on the Asian population in the United States.

Guest blog post by Commerce Deputy Secretary Rebecca M. BlankToday’s U.S. Census Bureau report shows that not only was the 2010 Census delivered on time and significantly under budget–but even more important, it was extremely accurate. I am proud of the extraordinary accomplishment by the Census Bureau and the Commerce Department in its success with the massive 2010 Decennial Census effort that gathered data vital to understanding our nation’s population and to allocating equal representation in our democratic system. The accuracy of the 2010 Decennial Census is particularly impressive considering outside predictions of failure. The Census was able to reverse a decades-long decline in survey response rates with its 2010 count. The data released yesterday are from a post-enumeration survey of the 2010 Census called the Census Coverage Measurement (CCM) program, which measures the accuracy of the coverage of the nation’s household population (excluding the 8.0 million people in “group quarters,” such as nursing homes or college dorms). It surveys a sample of the 300.7 million people living in housing units and then matches the responses to the census, providing an estimate of exactly who was or wasn’t counted in the census. The results found that the 2010 Census had a very small net overcount–just 0.01 percent–which is statistically virtually the same as zero, and a significant improvement over the 0.49 percent overcount in 2000 and 1.61 percent undercount in 1990. You can learn more about how the Census Bureau conducts the CCM survey after the census to help measure its quality.