Here are Some of the Least Diverse Places in Idaho

You could say all of Idaho isn’t very diverse.  The state is overwhelmingly white and the concentration grows in the northern panhandle.  When I took a job at Twin Falls in 2014, a friend from Washington, D.C., jokingly told me he would give me five dollars for every person of color I saw during my first month on the job.  That’s the perception of Idaho in much of the country.  Isolated, filled with cowboys and Caucasians, and, yet.  It’s much whiter closer to Washington.

Northern Appalachia, stretching into upstate New York and rural New England, would be the palest part of the country.  Easterners also don’t know about the large numbers of refugees we’ve settled in Idaho. Western states also have a large Hispanic population and it stretches from Mexico to Canada.  You’ll also find far more indigenous people here than east of the Mississippi.

The Washington Post has a story and maps about these regional differences.  You can read it by clicking here.

Get our free mobile app

While I can’t cite any scientific evidence, my personal experience is that the Mountain and Intermountain West are far more welcoming and tolerant of people with differences than other regions where I’ve lived.

A few loonies at an event in Coeur d’Alene is not indicative of Idaho.  People here have a code.  You leave me alone and I’ll leave you alone.

A few years ago, I was talking with a guy who moved here for a job in an office setting.  It took him months to acclimate to local strangers smiling at him on the streets and wishing him a good day.  That’s Idaho and despite jokes about Californians, Oregonians, and others, people seem to like their neighbors.