With Detailed Race Question, Census May End Ancestry Ask

Is ancestry history? The U.S. Census Bureau is contemplating getting rid of a question about a person’s ancestry on its most comprehensive survey, saying it may duplicate a newly-revised race question that allows respondents to write from where they or their antecedents came.

The Census Bureau is conducting research to determine if they get fewer responses, if data quality is compromised and what similarities or differences there are between the race and ancestry questions on the American Community Survey. The ancestry question has been asked since the 1980s.

Preliminary findings show that respondents are more likely to answer the race question than the ancestry query and that the data pulled from the race question covers 88% of the 126 ancestry groups the statistical agency lists, Census Bureau officials told an advisory committee on Friday.

Some civil rights groups, though, are worried the changes are premature and want the bureau to wait until detailed race data from the 2020 census is released for comparison. {snip}

The OMB’s proposed changes, currently under review, would combine the race and ethnic origin questions into a single query because some advocates say the current method of asking about race and separately about ethnic origin often confuses Hispanic respondents. It also would create a new category for people of Middle Eastern and North African descent, also known by the acronym MENA, who are now classified as white but say they have been routinely undercounted.

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Starting in 2020, the Census Bureau has allowed respondents to write detailed information about their background for the race question. For instance, the race question now allows a respondent to check a box for “Black” and then write in Haitian, Nigerian or other backgrounds in a blank box. The ancestry question asks “What is this person’s ancestry of ethnic origin?” and allows respondents to fill in a blank box with answers like Brazilian or Lebanese.

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