Key Facts Race and Ethnicity Overall
A big story of the region is its diversification and majority-minority transition. There will soon be a day when the majority of people will belong to a minority group (any group other than non-Hispanic White alone). Much of this is attributed to the sizable increases in the number of Hispanics, Asians, and multiracial persons in the region.
The following charts show the region's race, ethnic, and minority breakdown for Northern Virginia and its counties and cities. Hispanic and Latino are displayed separately from race because Hispanic and Latino is an ethnic classification and not a race classification. Hispanic and Latino persons can be of any race. Minorities are defined as anyone other than a person self-identifying as white non-Hispanic.
Decennial Census Data
The Decennial Census is based on a survey of the entire population. It is conducted once a decade. The 2020 Decennial Census population was released on August 12, 2021. The Decennial Census regional, county, and city population data is shown in the interactive charts that follow.
Comparisons of changes in race and ethnicity between 2020 and prior years should be viewed with caution. According to the Census Bureau, “The observed changes in the multiracial population could be attributed to a number of factors, including demographic change since 2010. But we expect they were largely due to the improvements to the design of the two separate questions for race and ethnicity, data processing, and coding, which enabled a more thorough and accurate depiction of how people prefer to self-identify.” For details on the changes please view the U.S. Census Bureau's technical information.