Statistics on Black Meteorologists in Six Organizational Units of the Federal Government

Abstract

Programs relating to full utilization and to increasing the pool of black atmospheric scientists require factual information. Statistically reliable information on black meteorologists is needed to determine any improvement in the participation of black Americans in the atmospheric sciences. Statistical data on blacks are often combined with statistics on women and other minorities and, therefore, must be identified and separated from these data in order to be used. This paper in the main presents statistics from six organizational units of the federal government on the number of full-time meteorologists compared with the percentage of black American meteorologists employed as of 1976. Based on National Science Foundation and American Meteorological Society data, a calculated estimate of how long it will take for the percentage of black meteorologists in the nation to reach population parity is given.