A Growing Demographic
Between 1990 and 2000, the number of American Indian children grew 21% to 840,000 (using a single-race definition) or 99% to 1.4 million (using a multiple-race definition).
This report utilizes census results to examine how the American Indian population is changing — and growing. It opens by reviewing the unique position that American Indians occupy in our society and discusses how recent changes in the survey’s treatment of race have complicated the process of comparing results through time. It is part of a series of papers on the 2000 census prepared for the nationwide network of KIDS COUNT projects.
Instead of asking respondents to self-report just one racial identity, as the U.S. Census Bureau had done in the past, its 2000 census enabled respondents to mark all races that applied to their racial identity. This change yielded dramatic changes in the American Indian population, which saw its numbers soar relative to 1990 census results.