The US Census Bureau is considering dropping a question about a person’s ancestry in its most comprehensive survey, arguing that it could duplicate a recently revised race question that allows respondents to write where they or their ancestors came from.
The agency is conducting research to determine whether they are getting fewer responses, whether data quality has been compromised, and what similarities or differences exist between the race and ancestry questions on the American Community Survey. The question of lineage has been raised since the 1980s.
Census Bureau officials told an advisory committee that preliminary findings suggest that respondents are more likely to answer the race question than the ancestry question and that data drawn from the race question covered 88 of 126 ancestry groups. % Are included. , Census Bureau officials told an advisory committee.
However, some civil rights groups worry the changes are premature and want the office to wait until the 2020 Census releases detailed data on race comparisons.
The Census Bureau’s decision on whether to remove the ancestry question will probably take a year or two.
The American Community Survey is the Census Bureau’s most comprehensive survey, asking about more than 40 topics ranging from income, Internet access, rent, disability and the language spoken at home. Along with the census, it helps determine how the $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed each year, where schools are built, and the location of new housing developments, among other things.
