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The federal government has released new standards for data collection in a bid to better reflect racial and ethnic diversity in the U.S. and ensure more accurate and consistent data mapping through updated terminology, definitions, and question formatting.
It’s the first time the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has revised the guidelines—Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity—since 1997.
Historically, poor data disaggregation for AAPI subgroups—of which there are more than 50—in government data obscured social, political, and economic disparities, many of which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The context: While the 1960s coining of the term “Asian American” encouraged joint alliances between Asian ethnic groups to build political power, it also bred dissatisfaction over the pan-Asian label’s broadness and inaccuracy.
- OMB’s use of the term as a racial category led numerous federal agencies to rely on aggregated figures to draw sweeping conclusions about AAPIs and actively reinforced harmful stereotypes.
The new guidance requires federal agencies to collect more granular data beyond the revised minimum categories. They must also publicly publish action plans outlining how they will ensure compliance within 18 months—all data collection must be in compliance with the updated standards within five years.
The OMB’s category revisions include:
- Adding more detailed examples within each group based on the highest populations in the 2020 census. For instance, the “Asian” category now lists “Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Another group (for example, Pakistani, Hmong, Afghan, etc.),” as well as a write-in option.
- Replacing “Far East”—a term considered outdated and derogatory—with “Central or East Asia” and “Indian Subcontinent” with “South Asia” in the Asian definition.
- Removing “Other” from the “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” category title. The new definition similarly lists more detailed examples: “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.”
- Adding “Middle Eastern or North African” and “Hispanic or Latino” as new minimum categories in a single combined question. The addition of the former would account for the 7 to 8 million people who previously had to identify as “White” or “Other.”
- Removing “Negro,” another pejorative term, from the “Black or African American” definition.
Efforts by the federal government to disaggregate data were stop-and-go throughout the past several administrations, with community-based organizations leading much of the activism.
- Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Southeast Asians especially suffered without disaggregated data to highlight the socioeconomic challenges they face.
- For AANHPIs, improved data collection through the newest revisions is a step toward implementing policies more precisely and equitably, supporting fair electoral representation, and addressing language barriers, access to health care, and poverty levels, among many other issues.
The Interagency Technical Working Group, which initially convened in June 2022, incorporated a decade of research by federal agencies—including studies by the U.S. Census Bureau—to examine how respondents previously interpreted questions and develop recommendations for the OMB. Input from the public, collected through town halls, listening sessions, and written comment, also informed the working group’s revisions.
- As of April 27, 2023, the Federal Register received 20,255 comments from the public. Several noted that the current two-question structure is confusing and suggested that respondents be offered a single combined question with the opportunity to select all categories that applied to them.
What to watch: OMB is establishing an interagency committee on race and ethnicity standards that will be charged with reviewing guidance on race and ethnicity data collection over a 10-year cycle.
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