The United States has a racially and ethnically diverse population. At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recent United States census officially recognized five racial categories (White, Black or African American, Asian, Native American/Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander) as well as people of two or more races. The Census Bureau also classified respondents as "Hispanic or Latino" or "Not Hispanic or Latino", identifying Hispanic and Latino as an ethnicity, which comprises the largest minority group in the nation. The census also asked an "Ancestry Question," which covers the broader notion of ethnicity, in the 2000 census long form and the 2010 American Community Survey; the question worded differently on "origins" will return in the 2020 census. As of 2020, White Americans are the racial majority, with non-Hispanic whites representing 57.8% of the population. Hispanic and Latino Americans are the largest ethnic minority, comprising 18.7% of the population, while Black or African Americans are the second largest racial minority, making up 12.1%. White Americans are the majority in every census-defined region (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West) and in every state except Hawaii, but contribute the highest proportion of the population in the Midwestern United States, at 85% per the Population Estimates Program (PEP) or 83% per the American Community Survey (ACS). Non-Hispanic Whites make up 79% of the Midwest's population, the highest proportion of any region. At the same time, the region with the greatest share of White Americans is the South, which comprise 35%. Currently, 55% of the African American population lives in the South. A plurality or majority of the other official groups reside in the West. The latter region is home to 42% of Hispanic and Latino Americans, 46% of Asian Americans, 48% of American Indians and Alaska Natives, 68% of Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, 37% of the "two or more races" population (Multiracial Americans), and 46% of those self-designated as "some other race". The five inhabited U.S. territories are ethnically diverse while each is fairly homogeneousAmerican Samoa has a high percentage of Pacific Islanders, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are mostly Asian and Pacific Islander, Puerto Rico is mostly Hispanic/Latino, and the U.S. Virgin Islands is mostly African American. Racial and ethnic categories Racial categories The first United States census in 1790 classed residents as free White people (divided by age and sex), all other free persons