Summary

Race and ethnic questions are among the most technically complex and publicly controversial questions asked on the decennial census. The resulting data are used for a variety of important policy ends--everything from promoting fair voting practices to analyzing the health of different population groups in the United States. Race and ethnicity are not clearly definable characteristics, however, and the biracial and multiethnic children of intermarriages are making measurement even more complex. During the 1990 census, controversy arose over how Asian and Pacific islanders were to be treated on the race question. A last-minute decision on this issue turned out to be contrary to the Census Bureau's initial recommendation. The 1990 census experience illustrates the importance of timely planning and research coordinated with consensus-building efforts. The existence of inadequacies and inconsistencies in federal race and ethnic data due to operational problems is clear, but GAO found that agencies generally used consistent race and ethnic definitions in designing their data collection instruments and methodologies.