Line graph of median household income by race and ethnicity from 1990 to 2021, showing gaps for Black and Hispanic households.
Hover or click to see values. Shaded areas represent recessions. Shaded areas represent recessions.

Before the 2002 data release, the U.S. Census Bureau's data collection did not allow for people to claim they were more than one race, meaning people of multiple races could be grouped with people of one race. Starting in the 2002 data and in subsequent years, people could select multiple races; the data set the authors use from this period includes only people from the selected race alone.