It's Happening Again

People who identify themselves as some "other race" besides Asian, Black, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, or white are the second-largest racial group in the United States, according to 2020 census results. If you're scratching your head trying to figure out just what this "other race" could be, you're not alone. The fact is, most people of "other race" are Hispanics. They checked the "other" category because they could not find the terms "Hispanic" or Latino" as options on the race question of the 2020 census. The federal government considers Hispanic to be an ethnicity, not a race, and it collects information on Hispanic origin with a separate ethnicity question. 

This has happened before—on the 2010 Census. Even then, the Census Bureau was concerned about Hispanics checking "other race" on the race question, so it tested an alternative that asked for race and Hispanic origin in a single question. The test proved that the combined question worked much better, reducing the "other race" category to the residual it was meant to be. When presented with separate race and Hispanic origin questions, a substantial 7.1 percent of the population in 2010 checked "other race." When presented with the combined question, just 0.2 percent of the population checked "other race." After these test results were released in 2012, Demo Memo predicted: "Expect a combined race and Hispanic origin question on the 2020 census." 

Alas, it was not to be. Although a combined race and Hispanic origin question was planned for the 2020 census, the Trump administration nixed it. So, it's happening again—an enormous "other race" population and lots of confusion.

Race and Hispanic origin of U.S. population

2020 Census	number	% distribution
Total population	331,449,281	100.0%
RACE:
American Indian	9,666,058	2.9%
Asian	24,000,998	7.2%
Black	46,936,733	14.2%
Native Hawaiian	1,586,463	0.5%
White	235,411,507	71.0%
Other race	49,902,536	15.1%
HISPANIC ORIGIN:
Hispanic	62,080,044	18.7%
Non-Hispanic white	191,697,647	57.8%

Note: Numbers by race will not add to the total population because people could identify themselves as more than one race. Hispanics may be of any race.

Source: Demo Memo analysis of 2020 Census results