Newsroom Archive

California and Oklahoma were home to about 1-in-4 of the 4.1 million American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIANs) reported in Census 2000, while New York City and Los Angeles had the largest populations of this race group among all cities, a new report by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau shows.

(The numbers in this news release consist of American Indians and Alaska Natives who reported that race alone, plus those who reported that race in combination with one or more other races.)

About 628,000 people who identified themselves as AIANs lived in California, while 392,000 resided in Oklahoma. Those two states, plus nine others with an American Indian and Alaska Native population greater than 100,000 -- Arizona (293,000), Texas (216,000), New Mexico (191,000), New York (172,000), Washington (159,000), North Carolina (132,000), Michigan (124,000), Alaska (119,000), and Florida (118,000) -- accounted for 62 percent of the total AIAN population, but only 44 percent of the total population.

Meanwhile, New York City, with 87,000 American Indians and Alaska Natives, and Los Angeles, with 53,000, led all cities.

The analysis, The American Indian and Alaska Native Population: 2000, is one in a series of Census 2000 briefs. The report shows the number of people who reported AIAN alone was 2.5 million and the number who reported AIAN in combination with one or more other races was 1.6 million, accounting for the 4.1 million total.

Other highlights of the brief:

Regions

• Of all respondents who reported American Indian and Alaska Native, 43 percent resided in the West; 31 percent lived in the South; 17 percent lived in the Midwest; and 9 percent lived in the Northeast.
• The West also was the region that had the highest proportion of American Indians and Alaska Natives as part of its total population: 2.8 percent.

States

• In 19 states, led by Alaska (19 percent), the American Indian and Alaska Native population as a proportion of the total population exceeded the national average (1.5 percent).
• No Northeastern state had more than 1.5 percent of its population reporting as American Indian and Alaska Native.
• Wyoming had the 44th largest American Indian and Alaska Native population, but ranked eighth in the percentage of American Indians and Alaska Natives among its total population.

Counties

• American Indians and Alaska Natives made up a majority of the population in 26 counties nationwide -- 14 in the West and 12 in the Midwest.
• Alaska Natives made up more than half the population in several boroughs and census areas (county equivalents) in Alaska.

Places

• The 10 places with the largest AIAN populations, when combined, accounted for 8.2 percent of the total American Indian and Alaska Native population.
• Of the 10 largest places in the United States, Phoenix (2.7 percent) had the largest proportion of American Indians and Alaska Natives among its total population, followed by Los Angeles (1.4 percent) and San Diego and San Antonio (1.3 percent each).

Tribal groupings

• Approximately 3.1 million or 74 percent of the 4.1 million people who reported American Indian and Alaska Native alone or in combination identified themselves as belonging to a specific tribe.
• Six of the 10 largest tribal groupings had 100,000 or more people: Cherokee, 730,000; Navajo, 298,000; Latin American Indian, 181,000; Choctaw, 159,000; Sioux, 153,000; and Chippewa, 150,000. Of all American Indian tribal groupings in any combination, these six tribal groupings represented 42 percent of all responses.

Census 2000 race data are not directly comparable with data from the 1990 or earlier censuses because of the change that allowed respondents to report more than one race.

A complete list of previously released and upcoming Census 2000 briefs may be found on the Census Bureau's Web site at <https://www.census.gov/population/www/cen2000/briefs.html>. They cover topics such as race, Hispanic origin, gender and housing.