New data from the 2020 census shows that the section of Concord that includes the area known as The Heights is one of the state’s most racially diverse neighborhoods. Except for Hanover/Lebanon, it is the only area north of Manchester with the smallest percentage of residents identifying as “white only.”

That detail is among a myriad of race and ethnicity data from the census released Thursday that is broken down to the level of “tracts,” which roughly correspond to neighborhoods with populations between 2,500 and 8,000, and “blocks,” which are smaller.

Nationally, the percentage of people who identify as non-Hispanic white alone – that is, not multi-racial including white – declined for the first time since the census began in 1790. However, the number of people who identify as a combination of white and at least one other race grew.

In Concord, what is known as Merrimack County Census Tract 329, comprising the area between Loudon Road and Route 393 to the east of the Merrimack River, reported 66.1% of its population self-identifying as “white only” in the 2020 census, or 2,873 out of 4,345 people. That is less than the results from about a dozen tracts in Manchester, Nashua and Salem.

Northern New England remains one of the least ethnically diverse regions in the country. Both Vermont and Maine have more than 90% of residents identifying as white only.

New Hampshire as a whole is 88.3% white, and parts of Concord are even less diverse: The city’s northwest corner, bordering Webster and Hopkinton, for example, is 91.9% white.

When asked about multi-racial categories, Concord’s Tract 329 had 71% of people reporting being white and another race.

In New Hampshire, it appears that in only one census tract out of more than 1,000 was the “white only” population a minority: Census tract 15 in downtown Manchester, comprising a score of blocks north of Valley Street around Route 28, was 48.6% white only.

Racial and ethnic comparisons with past census results remain difficult since the Census Bureau changed the way it asked for the information in the 2020 census.

Also released Thursday were more detailed population trends. They showed that Merrimack County increased 5% between the 2010 and 2020 census, slightly higher than the state’s growth rate of 4.6%. The southeast corner of Hillsborough, Rockingham and Strafford county grew even more.

By contrast, Coos County’s population fell by 5.4%, and Cheshire and Sullivan counties also declined slightly. None of this was a surprise, based on annual estimates.

“New Hampshire really has many of the same patterns you see in the U.S. as a whole,” said Ken Johnson, senior demographer at UNH. “Metro counties are doing better, especially on the border of a big city. The middle part, with amenities and recreational opportunities, is doing quite well. The North Country is having a little more trouble but nothing like what’s going on in other parts of the United States.

“Many states would be celebrating if their rural areas were doing as well as ours.”

In a press conference concerning the release, Census Bureau officials said that population growth in the past decade “was almost entirely in metro areas.” Nationwide, 52% of all counties lost population between 2010 and 2020.

Johnson said that most of New Hampshire’s growth over the past decade came from people moving into the state rather than “natural increase” of births over deaths.

He also noted that the census data reflected few of the changes that have occurred due to the pandemic since it came just as COVID-19 lockdowns were happening.

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