Below is a summary of how Native Americans in the Nine-County Bay Area are doing on critical equity indicators.

People

• Race/ethnicity: Native Americans in the region lost over one-quarter of their population (a loss of 6,645 people) between 2000 (when the population was 24,733) and 2019 (when the population was 18,088).

• College readiness: Although a smaller share of Native American Bay Area students are considered college ready compared to other groups, college readiness rates among Native American students increased from 29 to 34 percent between 2010 and 2017.

• Educational attainment: Over half of Native American adults in the region have a college degree or some college experience (53 percent), while one-quarter hold a high school diploma as their highest level of education and one-fifth have not completed high school.

• Median earnings: Similar to Black, Latinx, and multiracial workers in the Bay Area, median annual earnings for Native American workers declined between 2000 and 2019 (from $53,810 to $48,952).

Place

• Extreme commuting: After Black commuters (7.2 percent), Native American workers were most likely to be extreme commuters (6.9 percent), meaning they commute 90 minutes or more to work.

• Housing burden: Similar to the regional average, nearly half of Native American renter households in the Bay Area (47 percent) are burdened, meaning they pay more than they can afford in housing costs. 

• Homeownership: Nearly half of Native American households (46 percent) in the Bay Area own their homes, which has grown slightly since 2000 when 43 percent owned homes. The disparity in homeownership rates among Native American men and women is the largest of any group. Over half of Native American men own (54 percent) compared with 38 percent of Native American women. 

• Gentrification risk: Displacement is a concern, particularly for vulnerable households paying more than they can afford in housing costs. Half of all low-income Native American households in the region live in neighborhoods that are gentrifying or at risk of gentrifying.

• Neighborhood opportunity: Looking at neighborhood opportunity, six in 10 Native American residents either live in moderate or higher resource neighborhoods, while four in 10 live in low resource or high poverty/segregation neighborhoods.

• Business ownership and revenue: Although Native Americans had the highest business ownership rates in the San Francisco metro area among sole proprietorships in 2012, they were also on the lower end of average annual revenues per firm ($30,000).

Power

• Economic gains: Racial equity in income: With racial equity in income, Native American workers would earn $106,001 per year on average, two and a half times their current income (42,748).