Improvements to the 2020 Census Race and Hispanic Origin Question Designs, Data Processing, and Coding Procedures Written By Rachel Marks, chief, Racial Statistics Branch, Population Division and Merarys Rios-Vargas, chief, Ethnicity and Ancestry Branch, Population Division The U.S. Census Bureau has collected data on race since the first census in 1790 and on Hispanic or Latino origin (referred to as Hispanic origin in this blog) since the 1970 Census. How these topics are measured, and statistics on them are collected and coded, has changed nearly every decade throughout the history of the census, reflecting social, political and economic factors. This blog discusses how we improved the census questions on race and Hispanic origin, also known as ethnicity, between 2010 and 2020. These changes provide important context as we prepare to release the 2020 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) Summary File. Read More