Florida ranks 4th in number of residents identifying as multiracial
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Former President Trump's false attack questioning Vice President Kamala Harris' racial identity comes as the number of people in the U.S. identifying as multiracial is surging — particularly in Florida.
Why it matters: Trump's comments illuminate how some Americans consistently misunderstand the complexities of people from multiple racial and ethnic backgrounds and how those identities shape their lives.
- In Florida, 16.5% of the population identify as multiracial, more than 3.5 million individuals.
- That's the fourth-highest percentage in the U.S., behind Hawaii, New Mexico and Texas. The national figure is 10.2%.
Zoom in: Miami-Dade County reported 1.1 million multiracial residents in the latest Census count.
Catch up fast: Trump's comments at the National Association of Black Journalists convention last week, saying Harris primarily identified as Indian and "became Black" recently, stirred discussions about her background.
Reality check: Harris regularly cites her background as the daughter of a South Asian immigrant mother and a Jamaican immigrant father.
- Harris graduated from Howard University (an HBCU), joined the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha and was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus as a U.S. senator.
Harris is hardly alone. People who identify as multiracial, or more than one race, are among the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census.
- The 2020 Census found that those who identify as multiracial almost quadrupled from 9 million in 2010 to 33.8 million a decade later.