Census Bureau considers dropping 'race' from survey

The U.S. Census Bureau is experimenting with eliminating the word “race” altogether in its 2020 survey, according to a report from the Pew Research Center on Thursday.

As part of its final research push before finalizing its 2020 wording, test-census forms will be sent to 1.2 million households later this fall in without any references to “race” or “origin.” Instead, the forms will ask: “Which categories describe person 1?” Respondents will then be able to choose from the usual list of racial and ethnic categories.


According to Pew, Census officials want to be clearer with their questions so that officials can gather more accurate data as required by law. Past testing and focus-group research has indicated confusion among found that the terms “race,” “ethnicity” and “origin” can mislead or confuse respondents, they can mean different things depending on the person answering.

“We recognize that race and ethnicity are not quantifiable values. Rather, identity is a complex mix of one’s family and social environment, historical or socio-political constructs, personal experience, context, and many other immeasurable factors,” the Census Bureau noted in a 2013 report on past testing efforts in the 2010 census. The report also recommended continued research on optimizing the use of examples for each racial and ethnic category, among other strategies.

Census forms currently contain two questions related to race and Hispanic origin, with one asking Americans whether they are Hispanic, Latino or Spanish, and the other asking “What is this person’s race?” with checkboxes and spaces to write in answers.

The Bureau is also testing the use of a “Middle Eastern or North African” category within the current lineup.

As Pew notes, the Bureau’s current definitions of race and Hispanic origin are often overlapping, with a white person being someone “having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa,” while Hispanics are defined as a person with “Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.”

The proposal was submitted for review by the Office of Management and Budget last month.

The Census has asked Americans about their racial identity since the first survey in 1790, though terms have varied over the years, and Americans were not able to select their own race until 1960. Before that, Census workers marked it f or them. Beginning in 2000, Americans could select more than one race.

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