Millions change race on Census forms

Can people change their race?

Uncle Sam and the U.S. CensusMillions did between 2000 and 2010, according to Census forms. Watch for a report on this later in 2014. A glimmer of the story came out this month at the annual Population Association of America conference on Boston. The full analysis was not yet ready.

People most likely to change their racial identification are Hispanics, people of mixed race, American Indians and Pacific Islanders, according to a report by D’Vera Cohn of the Pew Research Center.

In almost every census, categories and definitions on the forms change. This would explain why Native Americans had such an unaccountably large increase in the 2010 count.

In that same Census, instructions for Latinos changed, in part because this is not actually a race, but an ethnic group. Two and a half million people changed from describing themselves as “Hispanic and some other race” to “Hispanic and white.”

Census reports are frequently used in the cultural competence series, especially in “100 Questions and Answers About Hispanics and Latinos.”

Even bigger changes in race questions are planned for the 2020 census.

Media reporter Richard Prince wrote about the issue and said that the real story will not be in the top-line numbers, but in the stories of individuals trying to figure out how to describe themselves.

We’ll be watching the report at the Michigan State University School of Journalism, where Census reports have been an important help in our “100 Questions and Answers About Hispanics and Latinos” and other guides.

This entry was posted in American Indians, Hispanics and Latinos, Indian Americans, Native Americans. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.