America's Churning Races: Race and Ethnic Response Changes between Census 2000 and the 2010 Census

Abstract

Race and ethnicity responses can change over time and across contexts -a component of population change not usually taken into account. To what extent do race and/or Hispanic origin responses change? Is change more common to/from some race/ethnic groups than others? Does the propensity to change responses vary by characteristics of the individual? To what extent do these changes affect researchers? We use internal Census Bureau data from the 2000 and 2010 censuses in which individuals' responses have been linked across years. Approximately 9.8 million people (about 6 percent) in our large, non-representative linked data have a different race and/or Hispanic origin response in 2010 than they did in 2000. Several groups experienced considerable fluidity in racial identification: American Indians and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, and multiple-race response groups, as well as Hispanics when reporting a race. In contrast, race and ethnic responses for single-race non-Hispanic whites, blacks, and Asians were relatively consistent over the decade, as were ethnicity responses by Hispanics. People who change their race and/or Hispanic origin response(s) are doing so in a wide variety of ways, as anticipated by previous research. For example, people's responses change from multiple races to a single race, from a single race to multiple races, from one single race to another, and some people add or drop a Hispanic response. The inflow of people to each race/Hispanic group is in many cases similar in size to the outflow from the same group, such that cross-sectional data would show a small net change. We find response changes across ages, sexes, regions, and response modes, with variation across groups. Researchers should consider the implications of changing race and Hispanic origin responses when conducting analyses and interpreting results.

When race and Hispanic origin reporting are discrepant across administrative records and third party sources: Exploring methods to assign responses1

“…In fact, the odds of having non-matching race responses are 14 and 36 times larger for non-Hispanic AIAN and nonHispanic NHPI individuals, respectively, relative to non-Hispanic Whites. This is consistent with previous research that shows that response change is more common in AIAN and NHPI groups (Bentley et al 2003;del Pinal and Schmidley 2005;Liebler et al 2014). The coefficients in both models show that race and Hispanic origin data in ARTPD is more likely to be missing for nonHispanic Asians and non-Hispanic NHPIs than for non-Hispanic Whites.…”

“…Males (Fernandez et al 2015;McAlpine et al 2007) and younger individuals (Gomez et al 2005;Liebler et al 2014) are more likely to have non-matching responses compared to females and older individuals. Individuals living in more affluent neighborhoods (Fernandez et al 2015), people who live in the West, and people who respond through an interviewer compared to those who respond through mail tend to have nonmatching race and Hispanic origin responses (Liebler et al 2014). Household structure also has an impact on responses.…”

“…Prior research shows substantial racial fluidity among Hispanics relative to non-Hispanics (Brown et al 2006;Dusch and Meier 2012;Liebler et al 2014;Singer and Ennis 2003). One factor that may affect race reporting among Hispanics is that although the federal government defines race and ethnicity as separate concepts, many Hispanics view race and ethnicity as one concept and identify their race as "Hispanic."…”

“…Non-Hispanic Whites, Blacks, and Asians are usually consistent in their race responses; while race response change is more common among non-Hispanic AIAN, NHPI, and multiracial individuals (Bentley et al 2003;del Pinal and Schmidley 2005;Doyle and Kao 2007;Liebler et al 2014). Previous Census Bureau research from the 1990, 2000, and 2010 censuses shows that individuals are relatively consistent in their responses to the Hispanic origin question with three percent or less changing their answer between the census and its corresponding reinterview (Dusch and Meier 2012;Singer and Ennis 2003;U.S.…”

Volatilidade classificatória e a (in)consistência da desigualdade racial

“…Saúde Pública 2017; 33 Sup 1:e00082816 the temporal dimension of racial uncertainty in the country. Unlike studies elsewhere 27,28,29 , until we can determine the trends in interracial transition in Brazil, it will be hard to determine the impact of reclassification over time on inequality indicators, life expectancy, or any other socioeconomic or health outcome.…”