As the father of two multiracial children, Adam Hosey believes in having open and transparent conversations with his children about their racial identity is important to ensure they are proud of who they are.

Hosey, 34, who has lived in Lancaster County for eight years, identifies as Korean and makes sure his four and two-year-old can find Korea on a map. He and his wife also don’t forget to talk about his Pennsylvania Dutch heritage.

“We’ll be serving kimchi with sauerkraut,” Hosey said. “We talk about similarities and differences there.”

Lancaster County’s multiracial population has grown from about 10,200 people in 2010 to nearly 35,000 in 2020, reflecting a county that continues to become racially diverse, according to last year’s census.

Nationally, the population identifying with two or more races followed a similar trend, increasing by 276%, with people identifying as multiracial making up the second or third most common racial group in more than two-thirds counties in the United States.

The data is clear on what led to Lancaster’s increase – a jump in the county’s multiracial Hispanic residents from just under 3,700 in 2010 to nearly 20,000 last year, representing nearly two-thirds of the total change over the decade. The county has also seen a significant increase in the number of non-Hispanic whites who identify with Native American, Black, or Asian heritage. Together, multiracial residents made up 6.3% of the county’s 553,000 population in 2020, according to the census.

What is less clear is why such a dramatic jump has occurred locally and nationally in the ten years since the last census. While migration, birth rates and changes in how people identify themselves may have played a role, changes to Census Bureau methodology also likely affected the numbers significantly.

For example, the Census Bureau increased the number of write-in responses to race and ethnicity questions it “coded” as data in 2020, allowing it to capture a wider range of identities. in each response. The office also added more detailed examples of ranked groups in its race and ethnicity options and included write-in response boxes for each race option.

“The findings we published last month reflect both improvements in the way we measure, collect, tabulate and process this data on the concepts of race and ethnicity, as well as demographic shifts,” Nicholas said. Jones, director and senior adviser of Race and Ethnic Research and Outreach at the Census Bureau. “While we’re seeing very large differences, we’re also getting a more accurate picture than what we’ve measured in the past.”

Lancaster County, like the nation, is increasingly racially diverse as a whole, with growing numbers of Hispanic, multiracial, Black, and Asian residents. The county’s 6.5 percent population growth between 2010 and 2020 came entirely from non-white groups, with the share of non-Hispanic whites in the population increasing from 84.9 to 79.7 percent.

Marlyn Barbosa, director of Tec Centro, a workforce development program run by the Hispanic American Civic Association, said many residents of Hispanic identification will mark “another race” on the census because ‘they don’t see themselves as fitting into any of the other categories.

During last year’s census, clients were asking Barbosa what to fill in for the racial question after he marked himself as Latino on the ethnic question.

“They’re a bit of everything,” said Barbosa, 39, who was born in Puerto Rico. “I’m multiracial, and I know many, many Latino families will identify as that.”

Another potential driver for the growth in the number of Americans identifying with multiple races is the increased availability of DNA testing. A 2021 study in the journal Demography found that American adults who took genetic ancestry tests were more likely to identify as multiracial, especially with three or more races.

Joann McLaughlin, 52, vice president of the Circle Legacy Center, a Lancaster-based Native American education and culture organization, said many people come to the group as a result of DNA tests that show they may have Native American ancestry.

The number of multiracial people identifying as white and Native American in Lancaster County grew from just over 1,000 to nearly 3,900 between 2010 and 2020, according to the census.

“We have a lot of people who start wanting to feel like they’re somewhere, and they want to know where from,” McLaughlin said. “Everyone comes from somewhere, and we try to do our best to help that person identify.”

Multiracial residents made up about 6% of Pennsylvania’s population in 2020, up from about 1.9% in 2010.

Hosey, who works as equity director at YWCA Lancaster, said her organization had heard from participants in the association’s racial equity trainings that there was a “gap” when it came to spaces where multiracial people can share their experiences, although these spaces are growing. because social media provides a place where people can express pride in their identity.

“I think talking about race is a lot more acceptable now, which is a good thing,” Hosey said. “Like a lot of bad things happen because of social media, there’s a lot of celebration and joy and really big spaces.”

Jasmine Kraybill, a county realtor, identifies primarily as black despite her father being white, she said. Although she did not initially question her dual identity as a child, learning about racism in the world and experiencing it personally as a teenager made her realize that people would see her primarily as black. .

Kraybill is expecting a girl in November with her husband, who identifies as white.

“The way the world is, it’s like I really care about letting the world know that I’m black. First and foremost, I’m a black woman and I represent black people,” she said. It’s so vital for my daughter to grow up and be a proud woman like me, to be black.”