One Degree of Separation:
Paralysis and Spinal Cord Injury in the United States

Ethnicity and Hispanic Identity

• Just over three-quarters of those who reported being paralyzed were White (77.8%); 17.2% were African American; 12.1% were Hispanic; 3.7% were Native American/Alaskan Native; 0.1% were two or more races; and 0.8% were other.
  
  Paralysis is disproportionately distributed among minority communities, including African Americans and Native Americans, when compared to ethnicity data from the United States Census. Among Hispanics, however, those who reported being paralyzed represented approximately the same percentage as those who reported being Hispanic in the United States Census.
  
  
• Approximately three-quarters of those who reported being paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury are White; 15.6% are Black/African American; and 7.3% are Native American/Alaskan.
  
  12.7% of those who reported being paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury identified themselves as Hispanic, approximately the same percentage as those who reported being Hispanic in the United States Census.
  

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