New findings from the 2020 Census show that more than 43% of people who identified as Latino or Hispanic did not answer the question about race or chose “some other race,” the US Census Bureau said.
The data released Tuesday provides information about the racial identity of the more than 62 million Hispanic or Latino respondents to the 2020 census. About 8% of Latino or Hispanic respondents did not answer the question about race and 35.4 % only chose the “some other race” option, new Census Bureau data show.
“These findings support previous Census Bureau research that a large proportion of the Hispanic population does not identify with any of the current Office of Management and Budget (OMB) racial categories,” the Census Bureau said in a statement.
The findings released Tuesday come as the federal government is reviewing proposed revisions to racial and ethnic categories. The White House Office of Management and Budget is scheduled to make a decision on the new classifications next year.
Although the Census Bureau previously cautioned against making comparisons on race and ethnicity between 2010 and 2020 due to changes to the questionnaire to ask more detailed questions of US residents, it said the latest results showed “important changes” in how Latinos reported about their race.