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Twitter just released its latest diversity numbers. Here's how it stacks up against the rest of tech.

The company announced slight gains in Black and Latinx representation.

Twitter logo

Latinx representation at Twitter in the U.S. rose from 5.5% to 7.9%.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Twitter's 2021 Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Report just dropped, meaning updated public data on racial and gender representation at one of the largest social media companies.

The company made some strides in representation for women, as well as Black and Latinx employees. Women now make up 44.7% of Twitter employees globally, up from 42.7% on January 1, 2021. Black employees make up 9.4% of the U.S. workforce, compared to 6.9% at the beginning of the year. Latinx representation in the U.S. rose from 5.5% to 8%.

When it comes to leadership and technical roles, the figures are a bit lower, though still improved from last year. Women make up 39% of Twitter leadership and 30.9% of technical roles. Black and Latinx employees make up 7.8 and 4.5% of Twitter leadership and 6.8% and 7.3% of technical roles, respectively.

Retention for underrepresented groups is also trending close to retention rates overall, all hovering slightly above 80%. This is the first time Twitter is breaking down retention rates along gender and racial lines.

New disclosures that Twitter also announced for the first time: Military vets account for 7.3% of Tweeps, people with disabilities are at 3.3%, and LGBTQIA+ Tweeps account for 13.5% globally.

According to Protocol's Diversity Tracker, tech companies have been releasing diversity reports widely since 2014. By comparison, women still only represent 29.7% of Microsoft's global workforce, and women make up only 28.1% of leadership at Google.

Other important context: The data on vets, LGBTQIA+ and people with disabilities is based on the 72% of Twitter employees who participated in the company's self-identification program. Protocol's Diversity Tracker project previously highlighted the inconsistencies in the tech industry's self-reported diversity data.

This story was updated with more precise information from Twitter and corrected to show that only the data from vets, LGBTQIA+ and people with disabilities is based on the company's self-identification program.

Michelle Ma

Michelle Ma (@himichellema) is a reporter at Protocol covering climate. Previously, she was a news editor of live journalism and special coverage for The Wall Street Journal. Prior to that, she worked as a staff writer at Wirecutter. She can be reached at mma@protocol.com.

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