Poverty & Safety Net
Article

Why we changed how we’re calculating race data

Alex Dorman
Research Fellow
Additional Contributors
No items found.
September 9, 2024
Read time:
Download Fact Sheets
Register now
Share this resource
Subscribe to our Newsletter
By subscribing you agree to with our Privacy Policy.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Download this as a PDF

The new 2024 neighborhood and district fact sheets are here! As residents, community leaders, and policy makers digest the data, there’s one data point that could generate some confusion. Almost all the feedback we received from our internal and external reviewers pointed out that our racial demographic data does not add up to 100%. It might helpful to explain why we calculated race the way we did.

Yes, the numbers don’t add up to 100 percent

In research, we’ve been conditioned to expect population estimates to add up to 100 percent. By their very nature, it’s an estimate of a population, 100 percent of it! Or at least some percent of it, and then the rest of the data is reported as missing or adjusted to still add up to 100 percent. But when population estimates add up to more than 100 percent, it can feel counterintuitive.

 Not everyone falls into the tidy, exclusive, demographic categories that divvy up and describe the population.

Reporting race data (or any demographic data really) can be far less straightforward than it may seem. Not everyone falls into the tidy, exclusive, demographic categories that divvy up and describe the population. Those categories have always been subjective and culturally influenced, and are constantly changing. When we try to force people into tidy categories, we lose important insight.

Race calculations should retain nuance and unmask racial disparities

Race is a social construct used to divide populations often based on appearance, social factors, and cultural backgrounds. It is typically reported as the percentage of individuals who are entirely of one race, and anyone who is multiracial would be categorized as such, and anyone who didn’t fit into the predetermined racial categories would be considered “other.” This is indeed tidy, adds up to 100 percent, and is how most of our previous fact sheets have reported race. What is lost however, is the racial information of anyone who is two or more races, a demographic of individuals that has grown exponentially in the last decade. 

Race is a social construct used to divide populations often based on appearance, social factors, and cultural backgrounds.

It’s not just about lost nuance, though. Research has found that categorizing people as multiracial can actually mask racial disparities and undercount indigenous American and Hawaiian. In Cleveland, 8.2%, and in Cuyahoga County, 5.7% of the population identify as two or more races.  So, to report demographics more reflective of local geographies, we chose to report race as the number of individuals that reported themselves as either entirely of that racial category or a part of that racial category.

Using this method, someone who is, for example, Asian and Black, would be reported once as Asian, and once as Black, as opposed to being counted once as the catchall “Two or more Races” category. This is why our totals go over 100 percent! The one key exception to this is the non-Hispanic white alone category in the fact sheets. We report this category as non-Hispanic white alone, because race was constructed to be a hierarchical human-grouping system, and culturally the privileges associated with “whiteness” were typically only afforded to individuals with two white parents.

This is similar to why we reported a Black Indigenous and People of Color category. While BIPOC as a categorization tool has flaws in trying to categorize too many disparate experiences under one umbrella, it is still a culturally relevant category.

Reporting race this way offers more insight into the demographic composition of our local geographies. The one limitation to this method, however, is that by detailing what multiracial individuals’ specific racial identities are, we’ve lost the specific count of individuals who are multiracial. This limitation is solvable with some additional in-depth analysis, below.

Census insights into Cleveland’s multiracial population

There are 30,506 Cleveland residents who identify as two or more races. While the census doesn’t provide detailed information on residents who identify as three races (n=2,757) or four or more races (n=413), it does offer some insight into individuals who are biracial (n=27,336). The most common biracial identity in Cleveland is Black and white (38 percent). The second most common biracial identity is White and Some Other Race (34%). This is almost certainly a reflection of the census doing a poor job of capturing Hispanic identities, and indeed in Cleveland 88% of the 14,716 residents who identified as “Some Other Race” in the census was of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity.

The census is working to improve the way they capture Hispanic/Latino ethnicity in the near future. So, this biracial identity might be better understood as largely Hispanic/Latino and white. Similarly, the third most common biracial identity, Black and some other race, might also be understood to be largely Black and Hispanic or Latino. The next most common biracial identities in Cleveland were American Indian Alaskan Native and Black, as well as American Indian Alaskan Native and White.

These numbers may also be the result of a data quirk; according to Indigenous demography expert Dr. Carolyn Liebler, there is compelling evidence that changes in the way the Census captured data on race caused the number of individuals reporting their racial identities as American Indian to nearly double from 2010 to 2020.

Cleveland biracial population

The numbers in Cuyahoga County are mostly similar, except all Black biracial identities are a slightly smaller percentage, and there is a greater percentage of Asian and white biracial residents.

Cuyahoga County biracial population

This additional analysis shows that, for the 8.2% of residents in Cleveland, and 5.7% of residents in Cuyahoga County, their racial identities are largely pairings of Black and white, Hispanic/Latino and white, and Hispanic/Latino and Black. Specifically in the County, 12.3% of biracial identities are Asian and white.

Download Fact Sheets

District 10

Download

All Council Districts 2024

Download

District 4

Download

District 2

Download

District 11

Download

District 9

Download

District 8

Download

District 5

Download

District 7

Download

District 1

Download

District 3

Download

District 6

Download

West Boulevard

Download

University

Download

Union-Miles

Download

Tremont

Download

Stockyards

Download

St.Clair-Superior

Download

Old Brooklyn

Download

Ohio City

Download

North Shore Collinwood

Download

Mount Pleasant

Download

Lee-Seville

Download

Lee-Harvard

Download

Kinsman

Download

Kamm's Corners

Download

Jefferson

Download

Goodrich-Kirtland Park

Download

Glenville

Download

Fairfax

Download

Euclid-Green

Download

Edgewater

Download

Downtown

Download

Detroit Shoreway

Download

Cudell

Download

Collinwood-Nottingham

Download

Clark-Fulton

Download

Central

Download

Buckeye-Woodhill

Download

Buckeye-Shaker Square

Download

Brooklyn Centre

Download

Broadway-Slavic Village

Download

Bellaire-Puritas

Download

All Neighborhoods 2024

Download

West Boulevard Factsheet

Download

University Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Union-Miles Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Tremont Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Stockyards Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

St. Clair-Superior Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Old Brooklyn Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Ohio City Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

North Shore Collinwood Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Lee-Seville Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Lee-Harvard Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Kinsman Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Kamm's Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Jefferson Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Hough Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Hopkins Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Goodrich-Kirtland Park Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Glenville Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Fairfax Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Euclid-Green Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Edgewater Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Downtown Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Detroit Shoreway Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Cuyahoga Valley Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Cudell Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Collinwood-Nottingham Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Clark-Fulton Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Central Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Buckeye-Shaker Square Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Brooklyn Centre Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Broadway-Slavic Village Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

Bellaire-Puritas Neighborhood Factsheet

Download

All Neighborhoods 2016

Download

District 2

Download

District 1

Download

Ohio Women Statewide

Download

All Women Fact Sheets

Download

Wyandot Women

Download

Wood Women

Download

Williams Women

Download

Wayne Women

Download

Washington Women

Download

Warren Women

Download

Vinton Women

Download

Van Wert Women

Download

Union Women

Download

Tuscarawas Women

Download

Trumbell Women

Download

Summit Women

Download

Stark Women

Download

Shelby Women

Download

Seneca Women

Download

Scioto Women

Download

Sandusky Women

Download
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Download report

Subscribe to our newsletter

5 Things you need to know arrives on Mondays with the latest articles, events, and advocacy developments in Ohio

Explore the fact sheets

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.

Fact Sheets

Cleveland Neighborhoods

City of Cleveland Neighborhoods fact sheets and data profiles highlight demographic, health, and social indicators in the City of Cleveland. The fact sheets summarize and the data profiles provide extensive information about each neighborhood on employment and income, poverty, education, housing and health. Data released in 2016, 2021, and 2024.

Fact Sheets

Cuyahoga County Council Districts

Cuyahoga Council District fact sheets highlight demographic, health, and social indicators in the City of Cleveland. The fact sheets summarize and the data profiles provide extensive information about each district on employment and income, poverty, education, housing, and health. Data released 2017 and 2024.

Explore Topics

Browse articles, research, and testimony.

Poverty & Safety Net
Article

Sixty-one health and human service levies appear on ballots across Ohio

Kyle Thompson
October 21, 2024
Medicaid
Article

Setting the Medicaid Growth Rate

Brandy Davis
October 21, 2024
Poverty & Safety Net
Article

Staying nonpartisan when everyone is talking about the upcoming election

Emily Campbell
October 21, 2024
Older Adults
Article

Council on Older Persons (COOP): Older adults ensure strong neighborhoods

Community Solutions Team
October 17, 2024