New Mexico is the sixth most diverse state in America, according to a recent WalletHub study.
Lawrence Roybal, interim vice president for the UNM Division of Equity and Inclusion, said this is an impressive recognition and one his division is proud of.
“We are extremely proud that the University of New Mexico is an important part of the tremendous diversity that we celebrate and honor throughout the Land of Enchantment,” he said. “It is important for us to continuously advance a variety of diversity, equity, and inclusion endeavors through UNM in collaboration with our many committed campus partners and community allies throughout each year.”
These initiatives include conferences, forums, panel discussions, lectures, webinars, symposiums and specials events with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, Roybal said.
WalletHub’s research team examined states across five key dimensions and 13 additional metrics for the study, in order to determine the extent of their diversity and to construct an objective ranking, said WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez.
The data used were obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau and ARDA.
“States were analyzed across socio-economic diversity, cultural diversity, economic diversity, household diversity and religious diversity,” Gonzalez said. “These were further broken down into 13 relevant metrics, as seen in the methodology with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale.”The study revealed that the most diverse state is California, with an overall score of 70.74, she said, with the least diverse state being West Virginia, with an overall score of 55.55.
New Mexico’s overall score was 68.56. There were several rankings that contributed to a state’s overall placement, including: level of diversity in educational attainment, race and ethnicity, linguistic diversity, birthplace, occupation, worker-class, marital status, generational diversity, household type, household size, religious diversity, income and industry diversity.
Some of New Mexico’s higher rankings were eighth in Racial & Ethnic Diversity, second in Worker-Class Diversity, fourth in Household-Type Diversity and sixth in Marital-Status Diversity.
The study is quantitative, and analysts did not analyze the findings’ in-state correlations, Gonzalez said.
“That being said, Mississippi, Louisiana and Nevada ranked first, second and fourth, respectively, in both the Marital-Status Diversity and the Household-Type Diversity category, indicating that there may be a correlation between the two,” she said.
In WalletHub’s study, New Mexico ranked second in Linguistic Diversity and in Worker Class Diversity and fourth in Household-Type Diversity, Gonzalez said.
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“These represent the highest ranks obtained by the state and had a lot to contribute to New Mexico’s high overall ranking of sixth,” she said.
“We are extremely proud that the University of New Mexico continues to embrace and encourage diversity through a variety of important initiatives each year,” Roybal said.
Nichole Harwood is a news and culture beat reporter at the Daily Lobo. She primarily covers alumni and art features. She can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com, culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Nolidoli1.
