The 15 Most Diverse Counties in the U.S.

[packman]

1. Hawaii County, Hawaii
2. Maui County, Hawaii
3. Queens County, New York
4. Kauai County, Hawaii
5. Fort Bend County, Texas
6. Solano County, California
7 (tie). Alameda County, California
7 (tie). Gwinnett County, Georgia
9. Kings County, New York
10. Prince William County, Virginia
11. Honolulu County, Hawaii
12. (tie). Montgomery County, Maryland
12. (tie). Robeson County, North Carolina
14. Sacramento County, California
15. Contra Costa County, California

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/slideshows/the-15-most-diverse-counties-in-the-us?slide=16

[USAFRetired_Liberal]

1. Gwinnett county

Over the last 20 years, I have seen it transform from a Republican right wing stronghold at the local, state and federal level to being very progressive and a reason why Biden won Georgia

[Diamond_Dog]

2. Obviously why

GOP hates immigration

[Native]

4. Saw that and had to look twice. Heck, I think I actually triple checked what I saw.

[Hoyt]

25. Went to high school in 60s in Dekalb Co. Gwinnett was mostly rubes and

dirt roads.

The next county was one of those Sundown counties where no POC lived. That has changed a lot too, but you’ll still run into racist rubes. Thank gawd for Atlanta and some enlightened.

[njhoneybadger]

3. I can't believe Hudson County New Jersey is not on the list.

My wife once taught a class of about 30 kids that spoke 15 different languages.

[Sanity Claws]

8. It appears they determined diversity just in terms of race

Hudson County and Queens NY appear to be more diverse in terms of national origin and language.

[njhoneybadger]

9. That makes sense.

[greenjar_01]

10. Queens is on the list tho

[Sanity Claws]

12. But not #1 on the list

Queens has significant immigrant communities from everywhere. I work at a nonprofit in NYC and am acutely aware of our need for interpreters for many languages. I just don't see those two Hawaii counties as diverse as Queens in terms of national origin and languages.

[Klaralven]

18. The following groups are used in the diversity calculations:

The following groups are used in the diversity calculations:

Hispanic
White alone, non-Hispanic
Black or African American alone, non-Hispanic
American Indian and Alaska Native alone, non-Hispanic
Asian alone, non-Hispanic
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone, non-Hispanic
Some Other Race alone, non-Hispanic
Multiracial, non-Hispanic

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/measuring-racial-ethnic-diversity-2020-census.html

Other than Hispanic versus non-Hispanic, language doesn't enter into it.

Nationality is barely represented. South Asians are lumped together with East Asians, for example, while they are quite unlike each other.

[Sanity Claws]

20. That explains it

That grouping makes me wonder in what category they put those who originate from the Middle East.

[Klaralven]

26. The census just collects data as reported by the responding person

The question on race does give examples for each category, and it gives "Lebanese" and "Egyptian" as examples for "White".

See Figure 2 in https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/improvements-to-2020-census-race-hispanic-origin-question-designs.html

However, I'd bet that some Middle Easterners answer "Some other race".

[Elessar Zappa]

27. White.

Middle Easterners and North Africans are typically counted as white.

[Sanity Claws]

29. Yes. I question whether doing that really captures diversity accurately.

[JHB]

23. #15 there has a diversity index of 73%. Hudson county has 71.6%...

...which makes it the 3rd most diverse in NJ. Middlesex and Essex counties edge it out with numbers in the 72s.

Don't know how that ranks nationally. That would be a deeper data dive than I'm willing to do right now.

[Jilly_in_VA]

5. Prince William County, VA

I know that when I was a travel nurse (2005-2008) you had to be bilingual to get a gig at the hospital there. Interestingly, the most diverse unit I worked in was in Alexandria, VA, where I counted nurses of 14 different nationalities besides USA-born just in that one unit. We had a joke, "Don't worry if nobody speaks your language on this shift, someone on the next shift probably does." Even with dialects, someone could generally make themselves understood. The only time we got really stumped was with a patient from Afghanistan who spoke some really obscure dialect. That time we had to call her niece, who was a NICU nurse at another hospital, to interpret. Even our interpreter chain failed us. Fairfax county must be pretty high up on the list.

[Hortensis]

11. :) Good story, thanks.

[CrispyQ]

6. I thought this page was amazing!

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/30/opinion/politics/bubble-politics.html

I live in a democratic bubble where only 14% of my neighbors are republican.

[Jilly_in_VA]

13. Paywall

[Lisa0825]

16. Try googling the headline and the open the cached version: Do You Live in a Political Bubble?

That works for me on many paywalled sites.

[Jilly_in_VA]

19. It took literally 4 clicks to get there

and then it was a really dry article that didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. It only confirmed that I was right to cancel my NYT subscription.

[Sympthsical]

22. Tip for NYT

Click the link.

Hit "refresh/reload" then "stop refresh/reload" almost immediately after.

The full article will load.

[Sanity Claws]

7. I think I have to review their definition of diverse

I thought Queens, NY always won top billing on diversity.

[Jilly_in_VA]

14. I'd like to see

on down the list a bit. I know Rockingham County, VA has become a lot more diverse since I've lived here (2010). The co-op gallery I'm part of has a "LOVE" mosaic on one outside wall. As part of the mosaic there are stones with the words for "love" painted on them in the native languages of all the students in Harrisonburg High School at the time it was made---60 of them.

[Klaralven]

15. Diversity Index

Diversity Index

One of the measures we will use to present the 2020 Census results is the Diversity Index, or DI. This index shows the probability that two people chosen at random will be from different race and ethnic groups.

The DI is bounded between 0 and 1, with a zero-value indicating that everyone in the population has the same racial and ethnic characteristics, while a value close to 1 indicates that everyone in the population has different characteristics.
We converted the probabilities into percentages to make the results easier to interpret. In this format, the DI tells us the chance that two people chosen at random will be from different racial and ethnic groups.

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/blogs/random-samplings/2021/08/measuring-racial-ethnic-diversity-2020-census.html

Is a member of a minority group likely to be better off in a county with high diversity index, or in a county where their specific minority group is a larger percentage of the population?

[TxGuitar]

17. Yep

We live in Fort Bend county. It borders Harris (Houston) to the south and west. We are indeed diverse.

[Sympthsical]

21. Woo!

Most diverse county in California! Go us!

It is true, though. I'm the only white person in my social circle.

The Bay Area is kind of like that. You have to actively try to not land yourself in pretty diverse social and professional situations.

[Fresh_Start]

24. Go California...and especially go and vote NO on the recall ! nt

nt

[Sympthsical]

30. Already did n/t

[Hekate]

28. And people ask why I say my experience growing up in & living in Hawai'i influenced me re diversity

Of the 15 most diverse counties in the US, 4 are in Hawai’i. California, where I live now, has another four.

I like it.