U.S. Census looking at big changes in how it asks about race and ethnicity |
U.S. Census looking at big changes in how it asks about race and ethnicity
Pew Research Center
2014-03-14
Jens Manuel Krogstad, Writer/Editor at the Pew Research Center’s Hispanic Trends Project
D’Vera Cohn, Senior Writer at the Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project
The Census Bureau has embarked on a years-long research project intended to improve the accuracy and reliability of its race and ethnicity data. A problem is that a growing percentage of Americans don’t select a race category provided on the form: As many as 6.2% of census respondents selected only “some other race” in the 2010 census, the vast majority of whom were Hispanic.
Six percent may seem small, but for an agency trying to capture the entire U.S. population (nearly 309 million in 2010) every 10 years, that number results in millions of people unaccounted for. This pattern of response led to the bureau’s “most comprehensive effort in history to study race and ethnic categories,” according to Census officials Nicholas Jones and Roberto Ramirez. “Increasingly, Americans are saying they cannot find themselves” on census forms, Jones said.
Many communities, including Hispanics, Arabs and people of mixed race, have said they’re unsure of how to identify themselves on census forms…
Read the entire article here.
Tags: Nicholas Jones, Pew Research Center, Roberto Ramirez