More than 350 million detailed responses to the race and ethnicity questions were collected in the 2020 Census - six times more than in the 2010 Census due to improvements to the race and Hispanic or Latino origin (referred to as Hispanic origin) questions design, data processing and coding procedures.
Some of the most noticeable improvements include the addition of White and Black or African American write-in areas on the questionnaire and the tabulation of detailed Some Other Race responses. These improvements allowed us to provide counts for groups that did not receive data from the race question in previous censuses.
As a result, detailed data are now available for 104 White groups (Dutch, Lebanese, etc.), 62 Black or African American groups (Congolese, Grenadian, etc.) and 22 Some Other Race groups (Brazilian, Belizean, etc.).
The 2020 Census also marks the first time we are releasing data for regional groups, including Middle Eastern and North African, Caribbean, Sub-Saharan African, Polynesian and more.
The Detailed Demographic and Housing Characteristics File A (Detailed DHC-A) released today provides population counts for:
- 30 detailed and four regional Hispanic origin groups.
- 270 detailed race groups.
- 1,187 AIAN tribes and villages.
- 24 regional race groups.
In this release, detailed groups reported in the race question have both "alone" and "alone or in any combination" counts.
The "alone" count represents the minimum number of people who identified as that detailed group, and includes respondents with only one response, such as Hungarian.
The "alone or in any combination" count represents the maximum number of people who identified as that detailed group. It includes respondents with only one response, such as Hungarian, and those with multiple, such as Hungarian and Romanian or Hungarian and Black or African American.
This information is important to frame the discussion of racial and ethnic composition and help us understand our country's changing demographics as the nation becomes much more multiracial.