Slide 9 of 31
Notes:
Responding to the changing demographics of the American public, Census 2000 is the first time respondents have been able to select more than one race.
Moreover, Hispanic/Latino origin is not considered a race and is asked separately, before the race question on the Census 2000 questionnaire.
So, these new methods of collecting racial and Hispanic responses have resulted in 63 possible race combinations, which when cross-tabulated by Hispanic/Latino or Non-Hispanic/Latino, results in a grand total of 126 different racial/ethnic combinations.
In a 1996 National Content Survey on Race conducted by the Census Bureau, among many findings, it was reported that 1.2% of respondents reported as multiracial. Following that effort up, in the 1998 Census Dress Rehearsal, the percentage of people who actually did check off two or more races across the several test sites was not very high.[Sacramento, 5.4%; several counties in South Carolina, 0.8%; Menominee, Wisconsin 1.2%] While only representing a small group, multiracial tabulations of the races adds new complexity to the many data items users have as resources to make decisions.
