Updates to Race/Ethnicity Standards for Our Nation
After years of scientific research, extensive public engagement, and Federal expert review and deliberation, on March 28, 2024, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published the results of its review of Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (SPD 15) and issued updated standards for maintaining, collecting and presenting race/ethnicity data across federal agencies. The Census Bureau, like all other Federal Statistical agencies, is required to follow SPD 15. The Census Bureau is developing an action plan for implementing the updated standards in its censuses, surveys, and data programs by OMB’s required deadline of March 2029.
The key revisions in the 2024 SPD 15 include:
- Using a combined race/ethnicity question with co-equal categories and encouraging respondents to select as many options as apply.
- Adding Middle Eastern or North African as a new minimum category.
- Requiring the collection of additional detail beyond the minimum required race and ethnicity categories for most situations.
- Updating definitions, terminology, and guidance to agencies on the collection and presentation of data.
The updated standards have seven co-equal minimum categories for data on race and ethnicity: American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Middle Eastern or North African, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and White.
The minimum categories for data on race and ethnicity for Federal statistics, program administrative reporting, and civil rights compliance reporting are defined as follows:
American Indian or Alaska Native
- Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of North, Central, and South America, including, for example, Navajo Nation, Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, Native Village of Barrow Inupiat Traditional Government, Nome Eskimo Community, Aztec, and Maya.
Asian
- Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Central or East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia, including, for example, Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese.
Black or African American
- Individuals with origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa, including, for example, African American, Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, Ethiopian, and Somali.
Hispanic or Latino
- Includes individuals of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Cuban, Dominican, Guatemalan, and other Central or South American or Spanish culture or origin.
Middle Eastern or North African
- Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of the Middle East or North Africa, including, for example, Lebanese, Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, and Israeli.
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
- Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands, including, for example, Native Hawaiian, Samoan, Chamorro, Tongan, Fijian, and Marshallese.
White
- Individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, including, for example, English, German, Irish, Italian, Polish, and Scottish.
The updated standards require all race and/or ethnicity categories to be treated equally in collection and tabulation, and respondents may select as many race and/or ethnicity options that correspond to how they identify. In tabulation, the minimum race and ethnicity categories must be treated co-equally except if a program or collection effort focuses on a specific race or ethnicity group, and collection forms may not indicate that some categories are ethnicities and other categories are races.
Census Bureau research findings over the past decade resonate with many of the SPD 15 updates. Based on our extensive research and engagement with myriad communities, organizations, scholars, researchers and data users across the country, we know a combined race/ethnicity question with a dedicated Middle Eastern or North African response category and an emphasis on the collection of detailed identities for all communities will produce more accurate race/ethnicity data for our nation’s population across all communities.
The updates to SPD 15 were informed by robust empirical research; extensive engagement with experts, scholars, organization leaders and communities across the country, and the successful and meaningful collaboration among federal agency leaders and experts on the Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards.
We are confident the updated standards will improve data on race/ethnicity across Census Bureau programs, and these data will fully represent the U.S. population’s racial/ethnic composition and detailed identities.
Implementation of the Updated 2024 SPD 15
The Census Bureau is preparing to implement OMB's updated 2024 race and ethnicity standards in the 2027 American Community Survey and the 2030 Census, and we are developing an action plan for how to implement the updated standards in all of our agency surveys and data programs that include data on race/ethnicity.
Questions about this topic can be emailed to [email protected].
Collaboration with OMB and Federal Statistical Agencies
Over the past decade plus, Census Bureau researchers and leaders worked with researchers and leaders from other federal statistical agencies and the OMB on a federal Interagency Working Group (IWG) for Research on Race and Ethnicity (2014–2018) and a federal Interagency Technical Working Group (ITWG) on Race and Ethnicity (2022-2024). Under the guidance of OMB, which prescribes and maintains the federal standards for data on race and ethnicity, the IWG and ITWG examined OMB’s 1997 Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity and explored options for improving federal data on race and ethnicity.
In 2022, OMB charged the ITWG with providing recommendations on topics including, but not limited to:
- Whether the minimum reporting categories should be changed and how to best address detailed race and ethnicity groups in the standards;
- Whether updates should be made to the question format, terminology, and wording of the questions, as well as the instructions for respondents and associated guidance; and
- Whether guidance for the collection and reporting of race and ethnicity data can be improved, including in instances when self-identification is not possible.
The ITWG, consisting of federal government career staff representing over 35 agencies, relied heavily on research conducted over the last decade, including new research and testing of potential alternatives by several federal agencies. The ITWG also relied on robust public input, including over 20,000 comments provided in response to a January 2023 Federal Register Notice proposing revisions to the Directive, 94 listening sessions hosted by the Working Group, 3 public virtual townhalls, and a tribal consultation. Informed by these perspectives, the ITWG delivered a thoughtful and data-driven report to OMB with recommendations for updating and improving the quality and usefulness of federal race and ethnicity data.
Updated standards were issued by the Chief Statistician of the United States on March 28, 2024, and can be accessed here. The updated standards closely follow the Working Group’s evidence-based recommendations and make key revisions to questions used to collect information on race and ethnicity.
History of Federal Standards for Race and Ethnicity Data: Statistical Policy Directive No. 15
While data on race/ethnicity have been collected since the first decennial census in 1790, the first federal standards on race and ethnicity data were established in 1977 by OMB, in large part due to federal responsibilities to enforce civil rights laws. One of the basic goals of SPD 15 is to maximize the quality of federal race/ethnicity data by ensuring that the format, language, and procedures for collecting data are consistent and based on rigorous evidence, which promotes comparability across the federal government.
The OMB is solely responsible for statistical policies that must be followed by the entire federal government. Thus, the federal standards on how race/ethnicity data are to be collected and presented is an OMB policy, which the Census Bureau and other federal agencies follow.
The goals of SPD 15 are to ensure the comparability of race and ethnicity across federal datasets and to maximize the quality of that data by ensuring that the format, language, and procedures for collecting the data are consistent and based on rigorous evidence. To achieve these goals, SPD 15 provides a minimum set of categories that all federal agencies must use if they intend to collect information on race and ethnicity, regardless of the collection mechanism (e.g., federal surveys versus program benefit applications).
Since the OMB initially developed race/ethnicity data standards in 1977, SPD 15 has been revised two times, resulting in the 1997 Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity and, most recently, the 2024 Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity.
1977 Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting
The first federal standards for race and ethnicity data were established in 1977 by OMB in Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (OMB 1977). The original standards were established by OMB in the late 1970s, in cooperation with other federal agencies, to provide consistent data on race and ethnicity (when aggregated to the minimum reporting categories) throughout the federal government, including the decennial census, household surveys, and federal administrative forms (e.g., benefit application forms). Initial development of this data standard stemmed in large part from federal responsibilities to enforce civil rights laws.
1997 Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity
During the 1990s, SPD 15 was reviewed by OMB and an updated version of SPD 15 was released in 1997. For data collected directly from respondents, the revised 1997 standards required two separate ethnicity and race questions, with the ethnicity question asked before the race question. The 1997 SPD 15 stated that Hispanic or Latino respondents may be of any race. The 1997 revision of SPD 15 gave respondents the opportunity to report multiple races, however multiple responses to the ethnicity question were not permitted.
After the 1997 revision to SPD 15, several concerns with federal race/ethnicity data emerged:
- There has been declining quality of data on race for Hispanic or Latino respondents.
- Many Middle Eastern or North African respondents view their identity as distinct from the White racial category.
- There has been a growing need for detailed disaggregated data to better understand within-group disparities and outcomes. For example, it is not enough to have statistics about the general Asian population; statistics about detailed Asian groups (e.g., Japanese, Hmong, Filipino etc.), are needed as well.
- The 1997 SPD 15 used inconsistent and outdated terminology that needed to be updated.
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