These pie charts—which display the share of the region and nation’s population in each racial category—also include information about the share of the population that report Hispanic ethnicity. The U.S. Census Bureau categorizes Hispanic Origin as an ethnicity rather than a race, and people who indicate they are of Hispanic Origin can be of any race. Of note, as of 2002, Hispanics surpassed blacks as the largest minority ethnic or racial group in America.

In 2009, New England was considerably less racially diverse than the nation as a whole. While white people made up 79.6 percent of the national population, they constituted 87.9 percent of New England’s population. Every other group was underrepresented in New England relative to their share in the U.S. population, including the Hispanic population which constituted only 8.4 percent of New England’s population and 15.8 percent of all Americans. The Southern New England states—Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island—were more racially diverse than the northern states, where white people comprised all but 4.2 percent of the population. See Racial and Ethnic Composition of Northern and Southern New England for more information on the differences across New England.

Detailed information about the economic and social characteristics of New England's immigrants is available in NEPPC Research Report 08-2: A Profile of New England's Immigrants.