Associated Press
Aug 13 2004

Study: Glendale leads state in multiracial residents

GLENDALE, Calif. – Glendale has the state’s highest percentage of
people who identify themselves as multiracial, according to a new
study.

Using the 2000 Census, the Public Policy Institute of California
concluded that more than 10 percent of the Los Angeles suburb’s
200,000 residents identified themselves as multiracial. That was 2.6
percentage points more than the California city with the second-most
multiracial people, Hayward.

One factor in the number was an effort to get Glendale residents of
Armenian descent to note their background on 2000 Census forms.

For the first time, the 2000 Census allowed Americans to identify
themselves as multiracial – for example, an Armenian-American could
have checked both the white and the “some other race” category, or
written in “Armenian.”

Glendale has the largest Armenian population of any city in the
United States, and local leaders hoped a higher profile would help
them benefit from government and social programs for minority groups.

“That has drawn a lot of attention to the Armenian community and
Armenians are a political force to be reckoned with as a result of
those efforts,” said Ardashes Kassakhian, director of government
relations for the Armenian National Committee of America, Western
Region.

The study found that multiracial Californians make up 5 percent of
the state’s total population, twice the percentage in the rest of the
nation.

“The face of the United States is changing very rapidly and Glendale
is a very good example of what is to come,” said Glendale Mayor Bob
Yousefian, whose 15-year-old son is half Armenian. “You put different
races and ethnicities together and they’re going to mix. It’s
natural.”

Thousand Oaks and Newport Beach were the two least multiracial cities
in the state, with less than 2.8 percent of residents identifying
themselves as multiracial, the study found.