Nantucket’s Ethnic Mosaic

Nantucket’s Ethnic Mosaic

Peter Morrison

Nantucket’s full-time residents (those claiming Nantucket as their “usual place of residence”) numbered 10,172 as of April 2010–just a few hundred more than lived here in 2000. The vast majority of that increase reflects the arrival of hundreds of persons of Hispanic origin who’ve settled here in the past decade, broadening the racial and ethnic mosaic that characterizes our resident population. Here are some details (see chart below):

~ Nantucket’s full-time resident population includes 959 persons of Hispanic descent, more than quadruple the number a decade earlier.

~ Asian full-time residents number 118, double the number in 2000.

~ The number of African-Americans appears to be slightly lower, partly because more African-Americans report themselves under multiracial racial categories rather than exclusively African-American.

~ Indeed that multiracial category emerges as a more prominent one among youthful Nantucketers.

The student body in Nantucket’s public school system reflects the Island’s expanding Hispanic population. Hispanics’ share of NPS enrollments has risen from barely 3% in 2000 to an all-time high of around 13% (see chart).

Nantucket’s future is creeping in on tiny feet!

---

Peter A. Morrison tracks demographic trends nationwide and here on Nantucket. Retired from RAND Corporation in California, he has been regular seasonal visitor since 1985 and settled on Nantucket in 2005. Peter serves on Nantucket’s Finance Committee and Energy Study Committee and as a director of the Nantucket Shellfish Association.