Ethnicity is a socially important demographic marker throughout the world. In many countries, however, it is not collected or reported in official population statistics, typically for reasons of social policy. Race is a concept with a contentious history and is no longer in use in anthropology. But in the United States, both concepts have long been, and continue to be, prominent features of population statistics. This article is therefore focused on the U.S. case.
The racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. population has changed markedly since the founding of the nation as successive waves of immigrants arrived from an ever-shifting array of countries around the world. Classifying persons as a member of particular racial or ethnic groups is, however, far from straightforward, not only because of the increasingly complicated mix of identities among children whose parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents were members of different groups, but also because social definitions of race and ethnicity have changed through time. Despite these complexities, it is clear that the racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. population has been becoming increasingly diverse especially since the 1970s, and this trend is projected to continue.
For more, you may read at this website: http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/epop_02/epop_02_00278.html
From: Alice ...O(∩_∩)O...
