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September 14, 2022
Contact: OHA External Relations, orCOVID19.media@odhsoha.oregon.gov
Vaccination rates for some racial and ethnic groups will show increases this week after Oregon Health Authority (OHA) updates the population estimates used to calculate COVID-19 data.
Starting today, OHA’s COVID-19 Vaccination Metrics dashboard will include the updated Oregon population estimates for race and ethnicity data at the state and county level. Some of the biggest increases for adults will be recorded among residents who identify as Hispanic and Latino/a/x, whose adult vaccination rates now exceed 80%.
"I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations and thanks to everyone in Oregon's Latino, Latina and Latinx community for achieving this goal," said Governor Kate Brown. "It took hard work by community organizations, health care workers and volunteers partnering together to reach this milestone. I thank you all for your dedication and the work you do each and every day to keep community healthy and safe."
“When life-saving COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in Oregon, we saw early on that groups marginalized because of historic and ongoing systemic racism had worse health outcomes, including higher hospitalization and death rates,” said OHA’s Public Health Director Rachael Banks. “Historical oppression and existing barriers to health care contributed to lower vaccination rates among communities of color in Oregon, with large inequities for people who identify and Black or African American and Hispanic/Latino/a/x. Community stepped in to say OHA needed to more, and today we are seeing positive results from public health and community partners who helped vaccinate their communities using culturally specific approaches.”
"We were successful because we worked together — community, community-based organizations (CBOs), Latinx business and the state," said Olivia Quiroz, executive director for the Oregon Latino Health Coalition. "Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, CBOs have been serving on the front lines to address the needs of our community. Thank you to the CBOs who called for action, the state for being responsive and most importantly to all those individuals who overcame many barriers and got their vaccines to protect their families and our community."
Before today’s change, the statewide percentage of adults who received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and who identify as Black or African American was 82.4%. Today, the rate will show as 94.7%. The vaccination rate for Hispanic/Latino/a/x adults will increase from 68.6% to 80.7%.
The vaccination rate will decrease slightly for White adults, from 85.6% to 81.7%. The vaccination rates for adults who identify as Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and American Indian and Alaska Native will not change significantly.
The new population data refines the last update from December 2021, done in collaboration with demographers at Portland State University’s Population Research Center.
The center produces the official data used for Oregon population estimates. The updated data reflect the most recent five-year period, 2016-2020. They provide a more accurate estimate of the number of people by race and ethnicity in different age groups. The new estimates also have more precise age-related data to better represent populations in Oregon.
Inaccurate representation of populations in Oregon perpetuates systemic racism and health inequities. This update in population estimates also provides more accurate race and ethnicity data at the state and county level.
Data used for OHA’s population estimates come from the American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS), a representative sample of the population of Oregon.
Respondent data on race and ethnicity, place of birth and language were used to assign a primary race or ethnicity to every person in the sample, using the Oregon Race, Ethnicity, Language and Disability (REALD) standard. The population size of each age group in the ACS PUMS was adjusted to match the published totals by age for each county.
The previous data series included totals for the adult population, age 18 or older, based on the assumption that the share of the population for each REALD race and ethnicity group was the same for the adult population as for the population overall. That assumption was inaccurate for some groups.
The Hispanic and Latino/a/x population of Oregon is 12% of the state total, but only 10% of the adult population, indicating there are more Hispanic and Latino/a/x young people among all of Oregon’s youth. The update for 2016-2020 data now incorporated in OHA’s COVID-19 data use age data adopted directly from the ACS PUMS, leading to greater accuracy when comparing age groups.
County vaccination rates also will show changes with the update.
The greatest differences will be seen for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander persons in Douglas county, for Asian persons in Baker county, for White persons in Jefferson county, for both Black and African American and American Indian and Alaska Native persons in Crook county and for Hispanic and Latino/a/x persons in Lincoln county.
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