National Public Radio's employee ethnicity rate is nearly identical to their listenership statistics. NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos disclosed the company's ethnicity data following criticism of the cancellation of its diversity-focused talk show "Tell Me More."

"I agree that cancellation of the journalistically excellent seven-year old show is sorrowful, and I don't think I am talking out of school when I say that this seems to be a feeling shared up and down the NPR hierarchy," Schumacher-Matos wrote. "The reasons for the closure, as Chief Content Officer Kinsey Wilson has made clear in a number of public statements, are that the show had a relatively small audience, lost money and is a victim of shifting strategies to keep up with changing times."

To support Wilson's claims, Schumacher-Matos detailed race and ethnicity statistics from NPR's newsroom and audience and compared it to the U.S. population based on Census data.

Within the NPR newsroom, 77 percent of the company's employees are white. In comparison to the national average, it is 5 percentage points higher than the Census' 72 percent. Whites make up 87 percent of NPR's news audience.

Ten percent of NPR's newsroom employees are black, which is 3 percentage points lower than the national Census average. That is down 2 percent from 2012. The Black audience of NPR dipped into single digits, at 5 percent.

Latinos fared no better. Latinos in the NPR newsroom represented 5 percent of the company's workforce, the same as its 2012 figures. The overall Latino population, however, is higher — 16 percent — in the U.S. Similar to Blacks, the Latino NPR audience is in single digit territory, at 6 percent.

"You will see that Hispanics in particular are under-index in the newsroom compared to the population. In the last census in 2010, Latinos made up 14 percent of the adult (over 18 years old) population and growing, but they make up only 5 percent of today's NPR newsroom. This, roughly a third of their adult population weight," Schumacher-Matos noted.

Among the Asian community, 7 percent worked within NPR's newsroom, which is 2 percentage points higher than the U.S. population average. The Asian audience for NPR is 5 percent.

In regards to Native Americans, "NPR had one Native American newsroom staffer in 2012. It has none today."

The NPR newsroom statistics include editors, producers, reporters, designers and other full time "newsroom professionals" but not administrative support.

"For better or worse, the public affairs programming of NPR appeals mostly to Americans with a college degree, regardless of race or ethnicity. By this measure, black listeners index exactly the same as their proportion of college graduates in the wider society. College-educated Latino listeners are lower but within shouting distance," Schumacher-Matos stated.

According to Schumacher-Matos, emphasis on diversity will be introduced on NPR's remaining programs following the end of "Tell Me More."

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