The U.S. Census Bureau is conducting its Race/Ethnicity Coding Improvement Project and is currently seeking public feedback through a Federal Register notice (FRN) on how detailed race/ethnicity and American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) populations will be coded in the American Community Survey (ACS) and the 2030 Census. The way in which detailed race/ethnicity responses are coded connects directly to how published estimates and counts are tabulated for the ACS and the decennial census. The Census Bureau classifies and tabulates race/ethnicity data following the standards set by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (SPD 15), which was updated earlier this year.    

Public feedback on the code list is essential to making sure future data on race/ethnicity groups accurately reflect our nation’s diverse population. Comments to the FRN will inform how detailed write-in responses to the new combined race/ethnicity question will be processed and published in data products. The Census Bureau will consider all feedback provided in response to the FRN, but all updates to the code list must also be supported by strong Federal scientific research and evidence and align with the definitions of the minimum race/ethnicity reporting categories in the updated SPD 15.

Coding is the process that assigns a numeric code to each of the responses that are provided to the race/ethnicity question. For the census and the ACS, we assign four-digit numeric codes to responses, based on how various race/ethnicity groups are classified in our code list.

These numeric codes are then used in the editing process and to tabulate estimates and counts that are published in our ACS and decennial data products. Ensuring the terms on the code list are correctly classified is critical for ensuring published estimates and counts for detailed race/ethnicity groups are accurate. 

Figure 1. Major Category Headers

Figure 2. Excerpt of the code list showing the code range for Japanese 

Figure 3. Excerpt of the code list showing the code range for Coeur D’Alene Tribe 

As previously mentioned, the code list includes thousands of terms, including abbreviations, and the codes assigned to them. These terms represent a variety of different race/ethnicity responses including:

• Nationalities (e.g., Chinese, Argentinean).
• Transnational groups (e.g., Roma, Hmong).
• Ethnoreligious responses (e.g., Sikh, Chaldean).
• Subnational ethnic groups (e.g., Igbo, Sicilian).
• Pan-ethnic terms (e.g., Arab, Latino).
• Broad geographic terms (e.g., European, African).
• Terms indicating Multiracial/Multiethnic responses (e.g., Mixed, Multiracial).
• Federally and state-recognized tribes and villages, unrecognized tribes, and general terms for tribes in the United States (e.g., Navajo Nation, Cherokee).
• Canadian First Nations and Central and South American Indian groups (e.g., Brokenhead Ojibway Nation, Maya).

There are many types of responses that people may report in the race/ethnicity question that are not coded as a race/ethnicity response. These include responses such as:

• Protest responses (e.g., “Why are you asking about race? We are all human!”).
• Nonsensical responses (e.g., “Haunted skeleton”).
• Responses that do not represent a race/ethnicity or tribal population (e.g., names).

Not shown on the code list are terms we assign invalid codes to, such as state names. These invalid codes may be used during processing before they are removed. For example, during processing of the 2020 Census data, if the state name of “Kansas” was reported next to “Potawatomi,” we were able to transform this response into the more specific response of “Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation.”

The Census Bureau posted an FRN asking for feedback to improve the race/ethnicity code list. The FRN is available for the public to provide feedback from November 18, 2024 through February 18, 2025.

Feedback from the public will help the Census Bureau more accurately collect, classify, process, and tabulate detailed racial, ethnic, and tribal responses reported in the race/ethnicity question. The Census Bureau is seeking feedback on any terms or groups that are missing​ from the code list, how groups are classified, alternative terms for groups on the code list​, and the utility of regional groups​ (e.g., East Asian) as used in the 2020 Census code list.

Throughout the FRN comment period, we plan to engage with stakeholders through webinars and tribal consultations to learn more about the various ways diverse communities may identify in the race/ethnicity question. 

After the Census Bureau receives all feedback, our race/ethnicity research team will carefully review it, have discussions with OMB’s Federal Committee on SPD 15, and ​make updates to the code list accordingly.​ All updates must meet three criteria: there is strong federal scientific research and evidence supporting the update, stakeholder feedback supports the update, and the update aligns with the definitions of the minimum reporting categories in the updated SPD 15.

​The Census Bureau plans to release a final code list for the ACS and the 2030 Census, as well as a summary of feedback received to the FRN, in the future.