OLMIS

by Jason J. Yohannan
Published Sep-29-2010

The U.S. Census Bureau annually produces county-by-county population estimates by race and Hispanic origin. The agency recently released such estimates for 2009, so let's have a look at what those numbers tell us about Northeast Oregon.

The latest demographics come from the standard techniques used by the Census Bureau to calculate population for years between the once-a-decade enumerations. The bureau is still compiling data from the Census 2010 forms we filled out earlier this year. Initial results from that effort won't be available until the end of the year.

Table 1 distributes each Northeast Oregon county's 2009 population into six racial categories, with 2000 figures shown for comparison. Additionally, the table splits the population into Hispanic and not Hispanic ethnicities. As of 2009, more than 90 percent of the population in Baker, Union, and Wallowa counties was White. In each county, the next-largest category was the mixed-race group.

In all three counties, the non-White share increased from 2000 to 2009. Furthermore, each specific non-White group maintained or increased its share of the population over the decade.

Similarly, more than 95 percent of the population in Northeast Oregon was not Hispanic in 2009. However, the Hispanic portion of the population increased from 2000 to 2009 in all three counties.

The racial categories here differ slightly from those published in the Census 2000 demographic profiles. That's because the 2000 Census form gave people the option to select "Some Other Race" to describe themselves. The annual estimates program does not use that "Other" category, so the data here were adjusted accordingly.

One final note: The 2000 data are as of April 1 of that year, whereas the 2009 data are as of July 1.