Core 116

Correlations Between Ethnic Origins and AIDS Rate

The connection between race and poverty, however, is not the only connection I made once I realized the simultaneous prevalence of both African American and Hispanic populations in cities suffering under a high rate of AIDS cases per 100,000 people. I also began to wonder what impact factors pertaining to ethnicity and place of origin have on the presence of a high AIDS rate. I therefore correlated AIDS rate with: the percentage of the population that was foreign born, the percentage that was native to the USA, the percentage that was native to the USA but not native to CT, the percentage made up of naturalized citizens and non-citizens, the percentage that speaks Spanish, and the percentage that was linguistically isolated.

I first began with the population that was foreign born because of the high percentage of AIDS sufferers that were black and Hispanic. I guessed that a good amount of the Hispanic population had emigrated from Mexico or Puerto Rico and that some of the black population could have come from Africa or the Caribbean. It therefore made sense when the percentage of the population that was foreign born correlated highly with the AIDS rate (at 0.7248) and that the percentage of the population that was native to the USA correlated negatively with the AIDS rate (at 0.7248).

Similarly, the percentage of the population that were naturalized citizens and the percentage made up of non-citizens both correlated significantly and surpassed the rate needed to ensure 99% certainty. Finally, in the area of ethnicity, I looked at the effect of language on the AIDS rate. I correlated the percentage of the population that speaks Spanish and the percentage of the population that is linguistically isolated with the AIDS rate. I found that both of these factors correlated significantly with the AIDS rate, suggesting that the inability, or unwillingness, of a community to speak English significantly impacts the rate of AIDS in said community.