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Our Data

A First-Ever Look at Multicultural Picture Books

We’ve collected, coded, and cataloged thousands of picture books published since 2002 depicting Black and Indigenous people and People of Color (BIPOC), and our data is available to the public — live and free for your use.

Disparities in Representation

We have collected and analyzed more-than 6685 books published since 2002 featuring Black and Indigenous Peoples and People of Color (BIPOC). The graphs to the right show the percentage of books in our collection featuring characters from each racial/cultural group. Not all groups are represented equally – or in the same way. Click the tabs below to see the types of stories available for each group.
Graph Key

21% Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American

7% Bi/Multiracial/Mixed Race

30% Black/African/African American

27% Brown-Skinned and/or Race Unspecified

8% First/Native Nations/American Indian/Indigenous

13% Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American

3% Middle Eastern/North African/Arab

14% Multi-Racial Cast of Characters

22% White/European American/Caucasian

Graph Key

21% Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American

7% Bi/Multiracial/Mixed Race

30% Black/African/African American

27% Brown-Skinned and/or Race Unspecified

8% First/Native Nations/American Indian/Indigenous

13% Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American

3% Middle Eastern/North African/Arab

14% Multi-Racial Cast of Characters

22% White/European American/Caucasian

Of the 1399 books featuring Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American characters:

27%
Any Child/Teen
12%
Biography/Autobiography
45%
Centering Culture & Identity
24%
Cross Group
12%
Folklore
3%
Incidental
7%
Informational
9%
Oppression & Resilience
5%
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts

Of the 459 books featuring Bi/Multiracial/Mixed Race characters:

48%
Any Child/Teen
17%
Biography/Autobiography
29%
Centering Culture & Identity
23%
Cross Group
2%
Folklore
2%
Incidental
5%
Informational
10%
Oppression & Resilience
6%
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts

Of the 2025 books featuring Black/African/African American characters:

35%
Any Child/Teen
24%
Biography/Autobiography
28%
Centering Culture & Identity
25%
Cross Group
4%
Folklore
4%
Incidental
6%
Informational
20%
Oppression & Resilience
6%
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts

Of the 1832 books featuring Brown-Skinned and/or Race Unspecified characters:

70%
Any Child/Teen
2%
Biography/Autobiography
13%
Centering Culture & Identity
27%
Cross Group
3%
Folklore
7%
Incidental
9%
Informational
4%
Oppression & Resilience
3%
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts

Of the 507 books featuring First/Native Nations/American Indian/Indigenous characters:

15%
Any Child/Teen
16%
Biography/Autobiography
64%
Centering Culture & Identity
14%
Cross Group
3%
Folklore
2%
Incidental
7%
Informational
14%
Oppression & Resilience
4%
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts

Of the 870 books featuring Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American characters:

29%
Any Child/Teen
15%
Biography/Autobiography
45%
Centering Culture & Identity
20%
Cross Group
7%
Folklore
2%
Incidental
5%
Informational
8%
Oppression & Resilience
8%
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts

Of the 221 books featuring Middle Eastern/North African/Arab characters:

10%
Any Child/Teen
14%
Biography/Autobiography
48%
Centering Culture & Identity
29%
Cross Group
18%
Folklore
3%
Incidental
13%
Informational
15%
Oppression & Resilience
6%
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts

Of the 919 books featuring Multi-Racial Cast of Characters characters:

13%
Any Child/Teen
5%
Biography/Autobiography
9%
Centering Culture & Identity
6%
Cross Group
3%
Folklore
57%
Incidental
26%
Informational
3%
Oppression & Resilience
18%
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts

Of the 1453 books featuring White/European American/Caucasian characters:

42%
Any Child/Teen
13%
Biography/Autobiography
19%
Centering Culture & Identity
52%
Cross Group
3%
Folklore
15%
Incidental
7%
Informational
14%
Oppression & Resilience
5%
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts

Category Key

These are descriptions of our categories

Any Child/Teen:Books featuring BIPOC in which race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, culture, im/migration, and/or religious, sacred, or origin stories are not central to the storyline. These elements may be present, but they are not essential to the plot and could be changed without changing the story.

Biography/Autobiography:Narrative books about the life of a particular person or group of people from a historical or contemporary perspective. These titles may be entirely nonfiction or may be partly nonfiction as in the case of fictionalized retellings of someone’s life.

Centering Culture & Identity:Books featuring BIPOC in which race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, culture, immigration/migration, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and/or religious, sacred, or origin stories (and their intersections) are central to the storyline. These books explicitly focus on the diverse expressions of human experience, depending on these elements to drive the plot. These also include plots that center joy in or celebration of BIPOC cultures and identities.

Cross Group:Books portraying relationships between main or secondary characters across racial or cultural difference, including but not limited to those depicting peer group and cross-generational friendships. These stories do not need to be focused on culture or race. However, the cross-group relationship needs to be important/significant to the book/title. The interactions depicted may be positive, negative, or resolving.

Folklore:Books featuring tales, proverbs, songs, nursery rhymes, lullabies, and/or legends that transmit the knowledge, traditions, practices and rituals,  and values of a particular group of people. These do not include religious, foundational, origin myths and stories, or indigenous traditional or sacred stories (see Centering Culture & Identity).

Incidental:Books featuring a racially diverse cast of non-primary characters; or books featuring animal main character(s) with BIPOC as secondary characters.

Informational:Narrative books (with or without a storyline) presenting factual information; may be encyclopedic. BIPOC are depicted, but race/culture is not always central to the content.

Oppression & Resilience:Books about group-based injustice and struggles for justice. These include stories about BIPOC who experience and/or resist structural oppressions such as enslavement, internment, imprisonment, or violent conflict; persecution in or forced displacement from their homelands; or barriers to basic freedoms such as land, food, housing, education, health & wellness, bodily autonomy, sexual or gender autonomy, etc.

Race/Culture/Identity Concepts:Books that explore and/or compare specific aspects of human difference, inviting readers to consider varying perspectives related to race, ethnicity, culture, tribal affiliation or intersectional identities including religion, immigration, gender or sexual orientation.

Our full database of titles is not available for download. If you are a scholar or researcher interested in publishing or presenting about any of our data, please reach out to us directly to discuss.

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