Fayette County has seen multiracial population growth paralleling the growing racial diversity of America as a whole, according to U.S. Census data released September 16.

The non-Hispanic white population still remains the largest ethnic group in Fayette County as a proportion of the county’s total population. However, the percentage of people who identify as only white declined in Fayette County and the United States from 2010 to 2020, from 75.7% to 68.3% and from 72.4% to 61, 6%, respectively.

According to these demographics, Fayette County has become more diverse. The county’s Diversity Index, or the likelihood that two randomly selected people belong to two different racial or ethnic groups, rose from 44% to 52% from 2010 to 2020. America’s Diversity Index as a together also increased by 54.9%. at 61.1 percent.

The 2020 Census collected data on participants’ races using two separate questions. One question asked if a person was of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish descent, and another asked participants to self-identify from a list of races or write in another race. Participants could choose one or more options from a list of 15 groups, including a written category titled “another race.”

This new two-question system allows Americans to accurately identify their race. Prior to this census, multiracial people were only allowed to choose one of the races they identified with, and therefore these responses did not accurately represent the demographics of the country.

The Bureau has also increased the number of characters provided for people to write in a specific Hispanic background. The Bureau said it increased the character limit from 30 to 200, “to more fully and accurately reflect the intricate details of how people identify their race and ethnicity.”

In 2020, 7.1% of Fayette County’s population identified as two or more races, nearly three times the 2.5% of Fayette County’s population who tagged two or more races in the 2010 census. A similar increase – from 2.9% to 10.2% – occurred in the United States as a whole.

The Census Bureau said these increases in diversity were both the product of actual demographic changes and changes in the way census records wrap up. After testing alternative questions in 2015, the Census Bureau added written response boxes for the “White” and “Black or African American” options to its race question.