Even in 1960, our region was wrestling with identity issues. The U.S. Census Bureau demographics report for the Richmond "standard metropolitan statistics area" -- covering the city and the counties of Chesterfield and Henrico -- categorized 884 people as "not reported" in the sex column. And in the breakdown of "Nativity" (now "Origin"), the number of "not reported" was almost three times higher than those identifying themselves as foreign-born Richmonders. (One guesses there were clerical errors -- someone failed to check a box.)
More than 50 years later, the Richmond region shows a clear shift toward racial and ethnic diversity. To track the metamorphosis of our fair city and the localities surrounding it, we dug into census numbers a half-century apart. This is a snapshot of what we looked like in 1960 and what we saw in the mirror during the last decennial census of 2010.
Samantha Willis contributed to reporting; infographic by Sarah Lockwood
