This racial breakdown in the city emerges from research compiled by Algernon Austin, director of the New Haven-based Thora Institute. Austin reports:

"The Hispanic population is overrepresented among AIDS cases in New Haven, and their percentage of AIDS cases in Connecticut have been trending upward. The chart shows the percent of whites, blacks and Hispanics in New Haven based on the 2000 Census. A group’s proportion of AIDS cases should be roughly equal to their proportion of the population. In 2004, Hispanics made up 31 percent of the AIDS cases in New Haven but they were 21 percent of the population. Statewide, the Connecticut Department of Public Health reports that the percentage of Hispanic AIDS cases 'has been increasing gradually over the course of the epidemic from approximately 20 percent in the 1980s and early '90s to over 30 percent during 2000-2003.'

"With respect to AIDS, New Haven is a haven for blacks. Both nationally and statewide, blacks are overrepresented among people with AIDS -— but not in New Haven. In New Haven, the proportion of blacks with AIDS is basically equal to their proportion of the city population. Because of black and Hispanic overrepresentation, whites are underrepresented among people with AIDS at the national, state and city levels."

To find out about the Thora Institute’s research on AIDS among blacks nationally click here and www.blackdirections.com.The New Haven-based Thora Institute. Click here to read more about their research on AIDS and race.