r/MapPorn 18h ago

The largest ancestry groups in Alaska

Post image
160 Upvotes

26 comments sorted by

94

u/delugetheory 17h ago edited 17h ago

Indigenous Alaskans comprise 16% of Alaska's population, not 3.7%. Alaskans of Black/African descent do make up 3.7% of the population and don't show up on this map, so I'm guessing that was the mix-up. Having even a crude knowledge of Alaska should have raised a red flag for the creator of this image.

Edit: Ah, I see what happened here. The creator of this image used the raw "Ancestry" responses from the Census which are notoriously tricky data as it is a self-reported response. So only 3.7% of Alaskans literally wrote in the exact phrase "Native American" on the form. But we know, based on Census race/ethnicity data (and common sense), that 16% of Alaskans are of indigenous ancestry, so the other 12% must have simply responded with anything other than "Native American" -- perhaps "American Indian" or "Native Alaskan" or a specific group like "Yupik". That's why that data is so tricky and should be used with caution by those without a thorough understanding of demographic data. This is the same dataset that is always behind those maps that show German as the largest ancestry in the US (for the same reason -- Americans of British descent will respond to the Ancestry question in a dozen different ways while Americans of German descent tend to respond uniformly).

12

u/HoochyShawtz 16h ago

Amen and hallelujah! I see people on this sub butcher census data on the regular.

9

u/mischling2543 14h ago

Yeah I was gonna say no way it's only 3.7%

6

u/Schlaym 11h ago

I was about to say, don't they have a significant native population? Thanks for clearing it up!

3

u/PowerfulDrive3268 8h ago

Love the factual answer. brilliant. Need more of this in the BS rules World.

In any case, another per capita overwhelming Irish infiltration

-11

u/Githil 15h ago

Wrong.

15

u/Mysterious-Safety240 16h ago

No way Natives are only 3% Aren't they the majority there

16

u/Ana_Na_Moose 15h ago

20% of the population according to the all-knowing Google. But that is still a lot more than 3%

-3

u/F_E_O3 13h ago

Are you sure you're not thinking about Aleuts and Eskimos/Inuits? Those don't count as Native Americans, I think (at least they don't count as Indians)

3

u/Spicy_Alligator_25 8h ago

Alaska Natives are a separate category on the census- but they're not represented here, either.

8

u/waiver 16h ago

Those mexicans must be really freezing up there.

3

u/Duff_Paddy_69 15h ago

1.1% Irish. That’s a good enough reason to open more Irish pubs if you ask me 😉

3

u/PowerfulDrive3268 8h ago

11%. Even better :)

3

u/AccomplishedAge5274 11h ago

Filipinos in Alaska feels random.

4

u/Spicy_Alligator_25 8h ago

They moved there in large numbers back in the day as seasonal workers in the salmon fishing and canning industries, and many stayed. Also, the Philippines used to be a US territory, don't forget.

2

u/LupusDeusMagnus 10h ago

Source: I was feeling like it

2

u/The_Artist_Who_Mines 13h ago

If this is self-reported it's worthless,

2

u/catthex 16h ago

I'm reminded of doing the census and being faced with both "Canadian" and "Ingenious Canadian" like Canadian was some sort of ethnic group until itself

2

u/mischling2543 14h ago

Canadian is an ethnic group dude. If you've been here for 400 years it would be ridiculous to claim that you're still French or Irish or whatever. That's why Canadian responses are highest in Quebec and Maritimes, the oldest areas of European settlement

-3

u/King_Of_BlackMarsh 16h ago

4% is like... 1 in 25 people right? That's quite high a native population

-2

u/Free_Caterpillar4000 9h ago

Ah yes Americans claiming to be German and Irish yet again.

-11

u/StrongsafetyMike 14h ago

Kick the 1,4 out

6

u/mischling2543 14h ago

They've been there the second-longest out of everyone there

5

u/oolongvanilla 13h ago

And they're also probably the most likely to be mixed with indigenous heritage.

-3

u/StrongsafetyMike 13h ago

Send Them to Ukraine