The Future of Children, Princeton - Brookings: Providing research and analysis to promote effective policies and programs for children.

The standard source for basic data on the racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. population is the decennial census. All of the data in this article come from the census and from projections of population changes modeled by the Census Bureau based on census data. Since the first census in 1790, the Census Bureau has collected data every 10 years on all residents of the United States, including their race and ethnicity.³

Comparing data from sources other than the census can be problematic. Individual surveys often differ in their methods of data collection, the content and format of questions, and the definitions of categories. For example, U.S. vital statistics (birth and death records) and the census collect information on race and ethnicity in different ways. The census currently determines race and ethnicity using self-identification, while for birth and death records, vital statistics surveys often rely on classification by a health care provider or next of kin. One study of infant birth and death records found that, in many instances, the race of an infant recorded at birth was different from the race of the same infant recorded at death. These discrepancies occurred because different people reported the race of the infant at birth and at death.⁹