In the past few years, diversity and inclusion training has been implemented in workplaces across the country from Sephora to Starbucks. This emphasis on promoting and understanding diversity in the workplace is crucial, as the PRRI 2019 American Democracy in Crisis Survey finds that a majority of Americans are exposed to people who are different from them more frequently at work than in other settings.
A majority of Americans (53%) say they frequently interact with people who do not share their race or ethnicity at work, and a majority also say they frequently interact with people who do not share their political party (53%) or religion (51%) at work. Forty-three percent say they frequently interact with people who do not share their sexual orientation at work.
By contrast, most Americans experience less diversity in other environments, including in schools, religious services, and civic gatherings or PTA meetings. Only 7% of Americans say they frequently interact with people who do not share their race or ethnicity at the school they attend, while 14% say they frequently interact with people who do not share their race or ethnicity at religious services, and 17% say the same at civic gatherings or PTA meetings.
Similarly, 5% say they frequently interact with people who do not share their sexual orientation or political party at the school they attend, and 14% say they frequently interact with people who do not share their sexual orientation or political party at civic gatherings or PTA meetings.
Notably, friendship circles and family are close behind workplaces when it comes to exposing Americans to diversity. Less than a quarter of Americans (22%) reported interacting with people who do not share their race or ethnicity in their family, while more than double that number of Americans (46%) reported doing the same within their friendship circles. Thirty-nine percent of Americans say they frequently interact with people who do not share their political party in their family, while nearly half (48%) say they frequently do the same within their friendship circles. Approximately 26% percent of Americans reported they frequently interact with people who do not share their sexual orientation in their family, compared to 42% of Americans who reported doing the same within friendship circles. Notably, 32% of Americans say they frequently interact with people who do not share their religion in their families, while 48% say they do the same within their friendship circles.
In the same survey, a majority of Americans (62%) agree that diversity in the United States makes the country much stronger or moderately stronger, while only 13% say it makes the country much weaker or moderately weaker.