This November, EPI’s Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy updated our interactive chartbook showing racially disaggregated data across several domains, including population demographics, civic engagement, labor market outcomes, and health. In addition to updating the charts with the most recent data available, many of the charts now include new data on American Indian and Alaskan Native (AIAN) populations. The chartbook was originally created as part of our Advancing Anti-Racist Economic Research and Policy handbook that includes a series of essays capturing perspectives and resources on race, ethnicity, and the economy.

The newly updated chartbook provides a more detailed snapshot of the social, political, and economic conditions for AIAN, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Black, Hispanic, and white households, and those data are also disaggregated by gender where possible.

The addition of AIAN data represents an ongoing effort to improve and expand representation of Indigenous communities within economic research and policy discussions. Historically, their exclusion has reflected a genuine lack of data of comparable quality and quantity compared with more populous groups within the United States. However, it is important to also acknowledge that Indigenous Americans have often been deliberately erased from the American narrative, even when those conversations center on social and economic justice. A history of physical, cultural, and economic violence—combined with institutional neglect and the denial of sovereignty—has resulted in AIAN communities experiencing rates of poverty, incarceration, and unemployment much more similar to Black and Hispanic Americans than white and Asian Americans. Supporting the self-determination of Native American communities while simultaneously working to make those communities whole through compensation for the harm done by American policy is critical to reducing those inequities.  

Significant gaps in employment opportunities and lower wage levels translate to lower median household incomes among Black, Latino, and AIAN households. As shown in the figure below, these income disparities have been persistent across time, even as recent years have seen increases in household incomes across groups. 

AIAN, Black, and Latino households experience much higher poverty rates on average than white and Asian households. AIAN households experience poverty at twice the rate of the typical American household (20.9% versus 10%). Poverty is a measure of economic deprivation, reflecting disparities in unemployment, wages, and income, as well as differences in life circumstances like severe disability and major illness.

When we initially released our anti-racist handbook, the goal was to provide a resource for scholars and organizations committed to redefining policy to fight against racism. The publication includes essays by scholars and activists from diverse race and ethnic backgrounds and disciplines. Each essay tackles a different aspect of the research and policy development process or addresses the political and economic concerns of a specific racial or ethnic community in the United States. These essays provide important context for interpreting the data in the interactive chartbook.

As outlined in one of the handbook’s essays, there is no such thing as race-neutral policy. Capturing differences in outcomes across groups enables us to examine the disparate effects of policy and move toward improving the lives of marginalized and often “invisible” communities.