The 2000 Census, which was finally released on Friday, provides a snapshot of a Bermuda that is the process of rapid change, much of it for the good.

Documents like the Census are immensely valuable as a way of marking progress and seeing what areas of the Island need to be improved upon.

There is much in the document that demonstrates that the Island is on the right track.

Overall, Bermuda in 2000 was wealthier, better educated, healthier, in better jobs and technically far advanced. If those are measures of happiness, then the Island has much to be grateful for.

But wealth and success bring their own challenges, and it is also obvious that Bermuda's success is not distributed evenly throughout the community.

Bermuda suffers from its share of traffic congestion, divorce and family breakdown, housing shortages, high cost of living and longer working hours.

More broadly, while the number of wealthy people in Bermuda, both white and black, has risen, the middle class has remained about the same size while the proportion of people classified as poor has shrunk slightly.

It remains only slightly less true than it was in 1991 that if you are white and male your odds of enjoying the fruits of Bermuda's success are higher than if you are black or female.

While blacks and women have made strides in areas such as educational attainment, quality of jobs, income and housing, the gap remains significant and stubbornly wide.

The influx of highly qualified and highly paid non-Bermudians into the international business sector tends to widen the gap further. Bermuda benefits from this success and wealth in countless ways. But it can also breed resentment if Bermudians, white and black, do not feel they are getting a fair chance at sharing in this success.

This has been an issue that has been rumbling for some time - the numbers in the Census emphasises why the Island needs to resolve it.

This division runs through other aspects of Bermuda life as well, according to the Census. Whites and blacks, with the primary exception of the Anglican Church, tend to worship separately. Increasingly, whites and blacks go to school separately, setting back more than 30 years of efforts to end formal segregation as 75 percent of white students attend private schools and the same number of black students attend public schools. This is an unhealthy state of affairs in a multi-racial society because it will invariably breed intolerance and bigotry.

Then too, there seems to be some evidence, especially with the growth in international business, that whites and blacks work separately too.

There will be innumerable exceptions to this, but the overall picture is clear. The need for integration today is greater than it ever was, as is the need to assure every person of equal opportunity.

It would be possible to spend hours debating the causes and history of the problem, and there is plenty of blame to go around. Bermuda has debated this issue extensively in the past.

Several things should be clear from the Census. For whites and blacks, for Bermudians and non-Bermudians, educational attainment is directly tied to career and financial success.

For Bermudians, and this is clear from the Census, CURE studies and labour statistics, there are plenty of good jobs available to those who are prepared to attain the necessary qualifications and experience.

That should be the lesson of this Census: Bermuda remains a society in which race and gender can determine wealth and success. But the opportunities are there for any person who wants to narrow the gap.