Demographics

Results

2002 Needs Assessment-DemographicsThe 142 respondents to the survey represented communities from all over the country. Virtually every region of the country was represented, including Alaska and Hawaii.

The largest number of responses came from the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast. Figure 1 below depicts the racial distribution of respondents' communities. Fifty-seven percent of community members were Caucasian; 14% were African American; 11% were Latino; 9% were Native American or Alaskan Native; 5% were Asian; 1% were Arab, and 4% categorized themselves as other.

Discussion

This roughly reflects the current racial mix of the country with the exception of the Native category, for which we had 5 times the number of respondents than would have been expected based solely on their percent representation in the overall population. Still, we had expected to see an even larger number of communities of color represented due to issues of environmental injustice. The racial distribution of respondents can likely be explained by survey methodology. Despite the attempts described above to reach communities through ej networks, many of the respondents were reached through listserves comprised largely of conservation organizations that tend to be characteristically White. Most individuals completing our survey did so via the Internet. Many individuals in disadvantaged communities are less likely to have easy Internet access.