Data impacts of changes in U.S. Census Bureau procedures for race and ethnicity data

Area of Science:

• Demography
• Sociology
• Public Health

Background:

• The U.S. Census Bureau (USCB) introduced procedural changes to race and ethnicity data collection starting with the 2020 decennial census and American Community Survey (ACS).
• These changes potentially introduced major data discontinuity, but the USCB has not published research on their impact.
• Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native populations are most affected by these changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of USCB procedural changes on racial and ethnic distributions.
• To analyze changes in demographic, socioeconomic, and mortality characteristics for affected populations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized 2019 and 2021 one-year ACS public-use microdata.
• Employed 2019 and 2021 National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) mortality data.
• Compared racial distributions and estimated demographic, socioeconomic, and mortality measures between 2019 and 2021.

Main Results:

• Significant data discontinuity was observed in USCB race and ethnicity data post-2020.
• The procedural changes impacted the comparability of demographic, socioeconomic, and mortality statistics.
• Analyses relying on pre- and post-2020 USCB data are affected.

Conclusions:

• USCB data changes beginning in 2020 have significantly impacted data comparability.
• Methods are needed to bridge race and ethnicity data between pre- and post-2020 datasets.
• This study highlights the critical need to address the race and ethnicity data discontinuity in USCB data.