Racial and ethnic diversity by state
Hawaii is the most racially and ethnically diverse state, with a diversity index of 76.6 in 2025, followed by Nevada (70.8) and California (69.9). West Virginia (22.2) and Vermont (22.3) are the least diverse. The index for the whole United States is 63.51: the percent chance that two residents chosen at random belong to different race or ethnicity groups.
Data as of October 29, 2026 (newest release used on this page).
Source: States Demographics, Computed, table B03002; Census Bureau, 2024 Cartographic Boundary Files. Darker states are higher; DC is the dot. Period: 2025.
| 1 | Hawaii | 76.6 | Higher | 20.9% | 10.6% | 1.7% | 35.7% | 76.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Nevada | 70.8 | Higher | 41.5% | 31.2% | 9.1% | 9.7% | 68.8 |
| 3 | California | 69.9 | Higher | 31.6% | 41.2% | 5.0% | 16.3% | 69.7 |
| 4 | District of Columbia | 69.7 | Higher | 36.8% | 12.9% | 38.0% | 5.5% | 67.2 |
| 5 | Maryland | 69.5 | Higher | 44.2% | 13.7% | 28.8% | 7.3% | 67.3 |
| 6 | New Jersey | 68.1 | Higher | 48.3% | 24.0% | 11.9% | 11.0% | 65.8 |
| 7 | Texas | 68.1 | Higher | 36.4% | 40.9% | 11.7% | 6.3% | 67.0 |
| 8 | New York | 67.4 | Higher | 50.3% | 21.0% | 13.0% | 10.3% | 65.7 |
| 9 | Georgia | 66.8 | Higher | 47.1% | 12.0% | 30.2% | 5.1% | 64.1 |
| 10 | Florida | 65.9 | Higher | 48.3% | 29.2% | 13.9% | 3.1% | 64.1 |
| 11 | Alaska | 64.6 | Higher | 55.8% | 8.2% | 3.0% | 6.5% | 62.8 |
| 12 | Arizona | 63.5 | Higher | 50.2% | 32.5% | 4.5% | 4.0% | 61.5 |
| 13 | Virginia | 63.1 | Lower | 56.0% | 11.9% | 17.9% | 7.6% | 60.5 |
| 14 | New Mexico | 63.0 | Lower | 34.1% | 49.4% | 1.8% | 1.9% | 62.9 |
| 15 | Illinois | 62.6 | Lower | 55.8% | 19.8% | 13.2% | 6.5% | 60.3 |
| 16 | Delaware | 62.5 | Lower | 55.5% | 11.9% | 21.7% | 4.8% | 59.6 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 62.2 | Lower | 57.9% | 14.0% | 6.4% | 2.5% | 59.5 |
| 18 | North Carolina | 60.9 | Lower | 57.8% | 12.6% | 19.2% | 3.9% | 58.0 |
| 19 | Louisiana | 60.8 | Lower | 53.8% | 8.1% | 30.5% | 2.0% | 58.6 |
| 20 | Washington | 60.4 | Lower | 59.3% | 15.5% | 4.0% | 11.0% | 55.9 |
| 21 | Connecticut | 59.5 | Lower | 59.2% | 19.9% | 10.0% | 5.1% | 55.7 |
| 22 | Mississippi | 57.7 | Lower | 54.0% | 4.3% | 35.8% | 1.4% | 55.9 |
| 23 | South Carolina | 56.6 | Lower | 61.0% | 8.4% | 22.9% | 1.9% | 54.6 |
| 24 | Massachusetts | 55.9 | Lower | 63.7% | 14.3% | 6.7% | 8.0% | 51.6 |
| 25 | Colorado | 55.6 | Lower | 61.6% | 24.1% | 3.9% | 3.7% | 52.3 |
| 26 | Alabama | 55.0 | Lower | 61.8% | 6.4% | 24.9% | 1.7% | 53.1 |
| 27 | Rhode Island | 53.5 | Lower | 64.7% | 19.7% | 5.1% | 3.8% | 49.4 |
| 28 | Arkansas | 52.8 | Lower | 66.1% | 9.8% | 14.5% | 2.0% | 49.8 |
| 29 | Oregon | 50.6 | Lower | 67.8% | 16.2% | 2.0% | 4.8% | 46.1 |
| 30 | Tennessee | 49.0 | Lower | 69.1% | 8.5% | 14.8% | 2.2% | 46.6 |
| 31 | Kansas | 47.9 | Lower | 70.2% | 14.4% | 5.3% | 3.1% | 45.4 |
| 32 | Pennsylvania | 47.8 | Lower | 70.6% | 9.9% | 10.1% | 4.4% | 44.0 |
| 33 | Michigan | 47.4 | Lower | 70.8% | 6.3% | 13.0% | 3.8% | 45.1 |
| 34 | Nebraska | 45.3 | Lower | 72.2% | 14.3% | 4.6% | 2.9% | 40.8 |
| 35 | Indiana | 45.0 | Lower | 72.7% | 9.5% | 9.5% | 3.0% | 41.3 |
| 36 | Minnesota | 44.9 | Lower | 73.1% | 7.2% | 7.4% | 5.6% | 40.5 |
| 37 | Utah | 44.8 | Lower | 72.0% | 17.6% | 1.1% | 2.6% | 40.7 |
| 38 | Ohio | 44.0 | Lower | 73.4% | 5.4% | 12.2% | 2.9% | 40.4 |
| 39 | Missouri | 42.9 | Lower | 74.3% | 5.8% | 10.7% | 2.3% | 40.8 |
| 40 | Wisconsin | 40.1 | Lower | 76.5% | 8.7% | 5.8% | 3.2% | 37.0 |
| 41 | Idaho | 39.8 | Lower | 76.0% | 14.6% | 0.8% | 1.6% | 35.9 |
| 42 | South Dakota | 38.4 | Lower | 77.7% | 5.4% | 2.0% | 1.4% | 35.6 |
| 43 | North Dakota | 36.9 | Lower | 78.9% | 5.4% | 3.6% | 2.1% | 32.6 |
| 44 | Kentucky | 36.8 | Lower | 78.7% | 5.8% | 7.7% | 2.0% | 32.8 |
| 45 | Iowa | 34.6 | Lower | 80.2% | 7.9% | 4.3% | 2.5% | 30.8 |
| 46 | Wyoming | 34.5 | Lower | 80.0% | 11.5% | 0.7% | 1.4% | 32.4 |
| 47 | Montana | 32.2 | Lower | 81.8% | 5.2% | 0.6% | 1.1% | 30.1 |
| 48 | New Hampshire | 27.0 | Lower | 85.1% | 5.3% | 1.4% | 3.0% | 23.6 |
| 49 | Maine | 23.5 | Lower | 87.2% | 2.7% | 2.4% | 1.4% | 18.5 |
| 50 | Vermont | 22.3 | Lower | 87.9% | 2.8% | 1.7% | 1.9% | 20.2 |
| 51 | West Virginia | 22.2 | Lower | 88.0% | 2.5% | 4.0% | 0.9% | 20.2 |
| United States | 63.5 | 55.0% | 20.5% | 11.7% | 6.5% | 61.1 |
Source: States Demographics, Computed, table B03002; Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2025, table B03002; States Demographics, Computed. Period: 2025. "=" marks a tie at the displayed precision.
The table ranks all 50 states and DC by the diversity index for 2025, from most to least diverse. The next four columns show the shares behind each score from the same survey, so the table also answers "what percent of each state is white, Hispanic, Black or Asian". The last column is the index computed from the 2020 Census.
The ten most diverse: no majority group
Among the ten places with the highest index, New York is the only one where a single group is more than half of the population: non-Hispanic white residents are 50.3% (±0.1 percentage points2). Everywhere else in the top ten, the largest group is below half. That is what a high score requires: several groups of comparable size, with none dominant.
The groups that make up the mix differ from one state to the next:
- Hawaii is the only state whose largest group is Asian: non-Hispanic Asian residents are 35.7% (±0.7 percentage points) of the population. Non-Hispanic residents of two or more races (20.4%, ±0.8 percentage points) are about as numerous as non-Hispanic white residents (20.9%), and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander residents add 10.1%.
- Nevada1, second, has a non-Hispanic white plurality of 41.5%, a Hispanic share of 31.2%, and Asian and Black shares of 9.7% and 9.1%. Four sizeable groups give it a higher score than California or Texas.
- California and Texas are two-way splits with a third group behind. Hispanic residents are the largest group in both (41.2% and 40.9%), ahead of non-Hispanic white residents (31.6% and 36.4%). California's third group is Asian (16.3%); in Texas it is Black (11.7%).
- The District of Columbia is the only place in the ranking where Black residents are the largest group. Non-Hispanic Black (38.0%, ±0.9 percentage points) and non-Hispanic white residents (36.8%) are close to equal in number, with Hispanic residents at 12.9%.
- Maryland and Georgia have the same structure on a statewide scale: a white plurality (44.2% and 47.1%) and a Black share near three in ten (28.8% and 30.2%2).
- New Jersey, New York and Florida combine a white share just under or just over half with sizeable Hispanic, Black and, in the first two, Asian populations.
Where diversity is high on the map
Only 12 states, counting DC, have an index above the national figure; 39 are below it, and the median state is at 55.0. The national index is high because the most diverse states include the three most populous ones, and because the country as a whole combines regions with very different mixes. Arizona sits exactly on the line: its index is the same as the US figure (63.5)1.
On the map, the highest values run along the Pacific coast and the southern border, through New York, New Jersey, Maryland and DC, and in Georgia and Florida. The lowest are in northern New England, Appalachia and the northern Plains and Rockies. Each Census region spans a wide range:
- West: from 76.6 in Hawaii to 32.2 in Montana.
- South: from 69.7 in the District of Columbia to 22.2 in West Virginia.
- Northeast: from 68.1 in New Jersey to 22.3 in Vermont.
- Midwest: from 62.6 in Illinois to 34.6 in Iowa1. No Midwestern state is above the national figure.
The least diverse states
Source: States Demographics, Computed, table B03002. Period: 2025.
Show the numbers
| State | Diversity index |
|---|---|
| South Dakota | 38.4 |
| North Dakota | 36.9 |
| Kentucky | 36.8 |
| Iowa | 34.6 |
| Wyoming | 34.5 |
| Montana | 32.2 |
| New Hampshire | 27.0 |
| Maine | 23.5 |
| Vermont | 22.3 |
| West Virginia | 22.2 |
At the bottom, one group accounts for most residents. Non-Hispanic white residents are 88.0% (±0.2 percentage points) of the population in West Virginia, 87.9% in Vermont, 87.2% in Maine and 85.1%2 in New Hampshire. The index values of the first two, 22.2 and 22.31, are too close to separate in a survey estimate; treat them as tied for last.
In three of these four states the second-largest group is not Hispanic, as it is nationally. Residents who report two or more races and are not Hispanic outnumber Hispanic residents in Vermont (5.1% against 2.8%) and Maine (5.5% against 2.7%), and in West Virginia the Black (4.0%) and multiracial (4.2%) shares are each larger than the Hispanic share (2.5%2).
Montana (32.2) is least diverse in the West1. Three smaller groups are each about one resident in twenty: non-Hispanic multiracial (5.8%), American Indian and Alaska Native (5.3%) and Hispanic (5.2%2).
Native American and multiracial residents change the order
Most of the ranking follows the Hispanic, Black and Asian shares in the main table, but a few states score higher than those columns suggest because of groups the table does not show.
| Hawaii | 76.6 | 0.2% ±0.1 | 10.1% ±0.4 | 20.4% ±0.8 | 24.6% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | 64.6 | 14.1% ±0.6 | 1.7% ±0.3 | 10.1% ±0.8 | 10.6% |
| New Mexico | 63.0 | 8.8% ±0.2 | 0.0% | 3.3% ±0.3 | 4.5% |
| Oklahoma | 62.2 | 7.4% ±0.2 | 0.2% | 11.3% ±0.3 | 10.6% |
| Washington | 60.4 | 1.0% ±0.1 | 0.9% ±0.1 | 7.7% ±0.2 | 7.6% |
| Mississippi | 57.7 | 0.4% ±0.1 | 0.0% | 3.8% ±0.3 | 3.0% |
| South Dakota | 38.4 | 7.9% ±0.5 | 0.1% ±0.2 | 5.3% ±0.6 | 4.2% |
| Montana | 32.2 | 5.3% ±0.2 | 0.2% ±0.1 | 5.8% ±0.4 | 4.8% |
| United States | 63.5 | 0.6% | 0.2% | 5.0% | 4.9% |
Source: States Demographics, Computed, table B03002; Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2025, table B03002; Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2025. ± is the 90% margin of error.
- Alaska is 11th most diverse (64.6). Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native residents make up 14.1% (±0.6 percentage points) of the population and non-Hispanic multiracial residents 10.1%.
- Oklahoma is 17th most diverse (62.2), with a non-Hispanic multiracial share of 11.3% (±0.3 percentage points) and an American Indian share of 7.4%.
- New Mexico is 14th most diverse (63.01), with Hispanic residents at 49.4% and non-Hispanic American Indian residents at 8.8%2.
Mississippi shows the opposite case. It has one of the largest Black shares in the country (35.8%2), but almost the whole population falls into two groups, and it has the lowest share of residents of two or more races of any state in the population estimates (3.0%5). With two large groups and few others, it is only 22nd most diverse1.
The last column of the table uses a different definition. The Census Bureau's population estimates count everyone who reports two or more races, Hispanic or not: 24.6% of residents in Hawaii, 10.6% in both Alaska and Oklahoma, and 4.9%5 nationally (July 1, 2025). The index, like the column next to it, places multiracial Hispanic residents in the Hispanic group, so the two multiracial columns differ.
How the index is calculated
The diversity index is the chance, in percent, that two people chosen at random from a state belong to different race and ethnicity groups. It uses eight groups from American Community Survey table B03002: Hispanic or Latino of any race, and seven groups of non-Hispanic residents (white, Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, some other race, and two or more races). The formula is the one the Census Bureau used for its 2020 Census diversity index, which it defines as "the probability that two people chosen at random will be from different racial and ethnic groups".
In practice:
- A state where everyone belongs to one group scores zero. The score rises as people are spread across more groups and as those groups become more equal in size.
- The highest possible score would come from eight groups of exactly equal size; no state is close to that, because the American Indian and Pacific Islander groups are small outside a few states and the "some other race" group is small everywhere.
- The index does not count detailed groups. Chinese, Filipino and Asian Indian residents are all in one Asian group, and Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban residents are all Hispanic. A state with many Asian origins scores the same as one with a single Asian origin of the same total size.
Comparing 2025 with the 2020 Census
Every state, and DC, has a higher index in the 2025 survey than in the 2020 Census. Nationally the figure is 63.51 against 61.13. The 2020 values agree with the Census Bureau's own release, which found the highest indexes in Hawaii, California and Nevada.
The two figures come from different sources, a full count in April 2020 and a sample survey in 2025, so the gap between them is not a tested change. The Census Bureau has also said that the large rise in people reporting more than one race at the 2020 Census was largely due to improvements in the design of the race and Hispanic origin questions and to changes in processing and coding, not only to population change. Comparisons with indexes from 2010 or earlier carry the same caution.
The largest gap between the two years is in Maine, which went from 18.5 to 23.51. West Virginia and Vermont, tied at 20.23 in 2020, are again level at the bottom in 2025.
Reading this ranking
- Other "most diverse states" lists measure other things. Some combine race and ethnicity with income, education, language, household type or religion into one score. This ranking measures race and Hispanic origin only, with a published formula, so it can be checked against the Census Bureau's tables.
- Close values are not different ranks. The index is computed from survey estimates, each with a margin of error. California (69.9), the District of Columbia (69.7) and Maryland (69.5) are within a few tenths of a point of each other, and New Jersey and Texas are tied for 6th most diverse1.
- The District of Columbia is a city. It is ranked with the states, as in Census Bureau tables, but a city mix is not directly comparable with that of a whole state.
- Diversity within a state is uneven. A statewide index does not say whether groups live in the same places. This site covers states only, so it does not rank counties or cities.
- The survey year is 2025. The next American Community Survey 1-year estimates, for 2026, are expected around September 2027.
The race and ethnicity hub brings these measures together, and each state's page, for example Hawaii or West Virginia, shows its full racial and ethnic makeup.
Questions about diversity by state
What is the most diverse state in the US?
Hawaii. Two residents picked at random there have a 76.6 percent chance of belonging to different groups, against 63.51 nationally. No group is a majority: non-Hispanic Asian residents are the largest at 35.7% (±0.7 percentage points2). Hawaii also had the highest index in the 2020 Census.
What is the least diverse state?
West Virginia, with an index of 22.2, essentially level with Vermont (22.31). In both states non-Hispanic white residents make up close to nine in ten people: 88.0% in West Virginia and 87.9%2 in Vermont.
What are the five most diverse states?
Hawaii (76.6), Nevada (70.8), California (69.9), Maryland (69.5), then New Jersey and Texas, tied for fifth among the states at 68.1. The District of Columbia, which is not a state, scores 69.71, between California and Maryland.
Is the most diverse state the one with the fewest white residents?
Not necessarily. The index rises when residents are spread evenly across several groups, not when one group replaces another. New Mexico has a smaller non-Hispanic white share (34.1%) than Nevada (41.5%2), but its index is lower (63.0 against 70.81) because Hispanic residents make up nearly half of its population.
Related rankings
Sources
- States Demographics, Computed, table B03002; 2025; released November 12, 2026.
- Census Bureau, American Community Survey 1-year estimates, 2025, table B03002; 2025; released October 29, 2026. data.census.gov
- States Demographics, Computed; table P2; 2020; released November 12, 2026.
- Census Bureau, 2024 Cartographic Boundary Files; table cb_2024_us_state_20m; 2024; released April 10, 2025. www2.census.gov
- Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, Vintage 2025; Vintage 2025 (July 1 2020-2025); released June 25, 2026. www2.census.gov
Margins of error (±) are at the 90% confidence level. A difference is called significant only when it passes the Census Bureau's test at that level. How every figure is built: methodology. Found an error? Write to [email protected]; corrections are listed on the updates page.