How will federal data on race and ethnicity be classified?

As the various forms for reporting race and ethnicity to the federal government expire and are submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for extension, the forms will need to reflect new standards for the classification of federal data on race and ethnicity. The OMB issued new classifications on October 30, 1997 (62 FR 58782) that will be used in the 2000 decennial census and phased into federal agency recordkeeping and reporting requirements by January 1, 2003. The Office of Management and Budget issued draft provisional guidance on the implementation of the 1997 standards on February 17, 1999. The guidance is available on the internet at http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/inforeg/race.pdf .

The new standards have five categories for racial data and two categories for data on ethnicity. The standards create a two-question format whereby self-reporting of race and ethnicity data is preferred; a combined format may be used, if necessary, for observer-collected data. Additionally, respondents will now be offered the option of selecting one or more racial designation.

Ethnicity will be reported as Hispanic or Latino or Not Hispanic or Latino. The term refers to a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

The five categories for racial data are:

• American Indian or Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.

• Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian Subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippine Islands, Thailand and Vietnam.

• Black or African American: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as Haitian or Negro can be used in addition to Black or African American.

• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

• White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

Aggregation guidance. In March of 2000 the OMB provided aggregation guidance to federal agencies that collect or use aggregate data on race to monitor and enforce civil rights laws. Neither fractional or double counting of individuals, nor arbitrary allocation of responses to one minority group versus another is required. The method keeps intact the five single race categories, and includes the four double race combinations most frequently reported in recent studies.

The aggregation method provides for the collection of information on any multiple race combinations that comprise more than one percent of the population of interest. Based on data from Census 2000, responsible agencies will determine which additional combinations meet the one percent threshold for the relevant jurisdictions.

A balance category is provided to report those individual responses that are not included in (1) one of the five single race categories or four double race combinations, or (2) other combinations that represent more than one percent of the population in a jurisdiction.