For the first time in decades, the 2030 U.S. Census will make significant revisions to the categories used for race and ethnicity data. The changes include a combined race and ethnicity question with a newly added Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) category. This is a substantial update that many believe will help the government better respond to the needs of various U.S. communities.
The Census, which takes place every 10 years (or decennially, to use the technical term), is the federal government’s main way of collecting data such as employment or unemployment status, home ownership, income level, and race and ethnicity. Those data are extremely important. Among other uses, they are what allow the government to recognize and address inequities between different groups. They are also critical for fields like medicine, where understanding varying disease risks, healthcare access, and treatment outcomes helps providers treat patients most effectively.
Professor Germine Awad, who has consulted with the U.S. Census Bureau for nearly a decade and a half, explains: “In my talks, I always tell people that the information and categories are not just boxes, not just categories. Census information affects allocations of money and resources in every sector you could think of, and not just in terms of federal funds. It’s what allows us to have translators in hospitals. It affects things like CDC studies on risks of diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. It informs the demographic data of all institutions so we can understand things like educational disparities, disparities in the workplace, hate crime statistics, and voting rights violations. It affects almost everything in some way.”
But determining what kinds of information the Census should collect—and how it should be collected—is complex and sometimes contentious. Unsurprisingly, that is especially true for race and ethnicity data. The government has gathered that information throughout the country’s history, beginning with the first Census in 1790. At that time, people were essentially divided into three categories: Slaves, Free White People, and All Other Free People. After slavery was abolished, those categories were first expanded in the 1870 Census. The options continued to grow and change over time in response to increasing diversity of the U.S. population and the country’s evolving understanding of race and ethnicity.
However, the last major expansion occurred nearly 45 years ago. Since 1980, the Census has used the same racial categories (with a few tweaks to nomenclature): American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; Black or African American; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; and White. A sixth category (labeled “Some Other Race” since 2000) is provided for people whose identity does not fit into the other categories. Hispanic or Latino status has historically been treated as an ethnicity independent of those racial categories (a separate box labeled “Hispanic or Latino of any race”).
But Awad believes those options miscategorize or fail to include some populations, including many people of Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) descent. MENA populations have origins in countries such as Lebanon, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, and many others (though precisely which countries should be considered MENA is an ongoing discussion).
Until now, MENA folks have been grouped with (and thus instructed to select) the “White” racial category on the Census. But there is a significant problem with that: Most MENA folks do not view themselves as White. Studies have shown that a substantial majority of MENA folks would select a separate MENA box (instead of White) if given the option (1). But lacking that option, many simply pick “White” as instructed (2). And while it is possible to write in additional races or ethnicities by using the “Some Other Race” category, studies have also shown that people are much less likely to do so compared with ticking a ready-made box. Moreover, inconsistencies in what people write make those answers much more difficult to interpret, code, and compare to other data.
The result of that demographic mismatch is a severe lack of reliable data, which leaves U.S. MENA populations and the challenges they face effectively invisible in many contexts.
The stakes of that invisibility can be life-or-death: “In health care, for example,” Awad says, “we know from other data that risks of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer for Arab Americans are disproportionately higher than for European Whites and are probably similar to those of African Americans (3). But because there is no category on the Census for MENA folks, those distinctions are masked so we may not see them or be able to address them. The main reason we gather this demographic data in the first place is to make sure the government is allocating resources equitably, but we can’t address inequities if we can’t see them.”
This dearth of data affects millions of people, many of them living in Michigan. Despite the fuzzy numbers, the 2020 Census indicated that there are at least 3.5 million people in the U.S. who identify as MENA. California has the largest MENA population relative to total state population, followed by Michigan.
That makes Michigan an ideal location for Awad’s research. “You can see these issues play out in so many ways here,” she says. “For example, take voting demographics and voting rights. The Dearborn area has a very large Arab American population, but most of the folks in Dearborn currently come out as White on the statistics. If you look at that data, however, there is something obviously different going on there. And we can’t really get data on whether there are voting rights violations happening for Arab Americans, for example, or whether enough Arabic-language materials have been provided for folks at polling locations.”
On March 28, 2024, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (which determines which race/ethnicity categories appear on the Census) agreed to add the new MENA category. The “Hispanic or Latino of any race” box will also be replaced with a combined race/ethnicity category for Latinx populations. The categories to be included in the 2030 Census are 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 “Some Other Race” option, allowing for write-in responses, will still be included as well.
The update is a major victory for Awad and others, but many challenges remain. For example, there is the fundamental question of which countries should be included in the MENA category in the first place. Then there is a related question about which countries will get dedicated checkboxes on the form (there is only space for six) and which will need to be written in using a system of numerical reference codes.
Despite those challenges, Awad views the revision as an enormous step toward greater recognition of U.S. MENA populations and the issues they face.
“The Arab/MENA community has been rendered invisible, and these recent changes to the race and ethnicity data collection is the first step towards acknowledgement,” she says. “There is much work to be done, but we are on our way.”
References
Awad GH, Hashem H, Nguyen H. Identity and Ethnic/Racial Self-Labeling Among Americans of Arab or Middle Eastern and North African Descent. Identity (Mahwah, N J). 2021;21(2):115-130. doi: 10.1080/15283488.2021.1883277. Epub 2021 Feb 4. PMID: 38736970; PMCID: PMC11086952.
Jones NA, Bentley M. Overview of 2015 national content test analysis report on race and ethnicity. Available at: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/2020/planning-management/plan/final-analysis/2015nct-race-ethnicity-analysis.html. Accessed November 20, 2020.
Fleischer NJ, Sadek K. Arab, Middle Eastern, and North African Health Disparities Research: A Scoping Review. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2024 Mar 11. doi: 10.1007/s40615-024-01972-8. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38466512. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38466512/
