Race in Hawaii: Betcha Can't Pick Just One

Courtesy U.S. Census Bureau

UPDATED 2/28/11 11:20 a.m.

Are you white? Asian? Native Hawaiian?

If you answered yes to more than one of the above, you're not alone.

There are six distinct options when it comes to identifying race on the U.S. Census but the fastest-growing group in Hawaii between 2000 and 2010 was "two or more."

Ten years ago, 259,343 of 1,211,537 island residents — 21.4 percent — identified as mixed-race. In 2010, that number jumped to 320,629 of 1,360,301 — 23.6 percent. The increase in mixed-race Hawaii residents — 61,286 — was almost as big as the gains made by Asian and white combined.

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