According to the 2010 Census, the United States population is at 308.7 million people. Almost half (44 percent) of the American Indian and Alaska Native population, or 2.3 million people (0.7 percent of the total population), reported being American Indian and Alaska Native in combination with one or more other races. This multiracial group grew by 39 percent from 2000 to 2010. The multiple race American Indian and Alaska Native population, as well as both the alone and alone-or-in-combination populations, all grew at a faster rate than the total U.S. population, which increased by 9.7 percent from 2000 to 2010.
- American Indian and Alaska Native population 2000 – 4,119,301
- American Indian and Alaska Native population 2010 – 5,220,579
5.2 million people in the U.S. (1.7 percent) identified as American Indian and Alaska Native, either alone or in combination with one or more other races. This population grew by 27 percent from 2000 to 2010.
Out of this total, 2.9 million people (0.9 percent of the total population) identified as American Indian and Alaska Native alone, an increase of 18 percent from 2000 to 2010. Of the 2.9 million who reported identifying as American Indian and Alaska Native alone, 479,742 were age 55 years and older.
A majority of the American Indian and Alaska Native alone-or-in-combination population (78 percent) lived outside of American Indian and Alaska Native areas. At the same time, most counties with relatively higher proportions of American Indians and Alaska Natives tended to be in close proximity to reservations, trust lands or Oklahoma tribal statistical areas. This was especially evident in counties throughout the West and in Oklahoma. States with the highest proportion of American Indians and Alaska Natives were Alaska (19.5 percent), Oklahoma (12.9 percent) and New Mexico (10.7 percent).
