Explanation of Race and Hispanic Origin Categories

Source:  U.S. Census Bureau
Internet Release date:  September 15, 1999

The race and Hispanic origin categories used by the Census Bureau are mandated 
by Office of Management and Budget Directive No. 15, which requires all 
federal record keeping and data presentation to use four race categories 
(White, Black, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian and Pacific Islander) 
and two ethnicity categories (Hispanic, non-Hispanic).  These classifications 
are not intended to be scientific in nature, but are designed to promote 
consistency in federal record keeping and data presentation.

It is important to recognize that this system treats race and ethnicity as
separate and independent categories.  This means that within the federal system 
everyone is classified as both a member of one of the four race groups and also
as either Hispanic or non-Hispanic.  Consequently, there are a total of 8
race-ethnicity categories, as illustrated by the table below:

        U.S. Population by Race and Hispanic Origin, July 1, 1997
                              (in thousands)

                White      Black   American Indian   Asian & Pacific 
                                   & Alaska Native      Islander
non-Hispanic   194,571    32,324       1,977             9,532
Hispanic        26,746     1,649         347               598 


As the above table illustrates, the Hispanic population is predominately White.
Because the number of Hispanics in the Black, American Indian & Alaska Native, 
and Asian & Pacific Islander categories is relatively small and thus difficult
to estimate accurately at smaller levels of geography, our tables which display
race and Hispanic origin information divide only the White category by
ethnicity.  The complete race by Hispanic origin breakdown is available in our
data sets.

Below are listed each of the categories used in our race/Hispanic origin tables
along with an explanation of how they relate to one another and to the 
categories given in the table above.

TOTAL -- All individuals in the population.  This is equal to the sum of the 
         TOTAL WHITE, BLACK, AMERICAN INDIAN, and ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER 
         categories.

TOTAL HISPANIC -- All Hispanics in the population, regardless of race.  This
                  category cannot be derived from any of the other categories,
                  but it can be subtracted from TOTAL to get the total number of
                  non-Hispanics.

TOTAL WHITE -- The sum of WHITE HISPANIC and WHITE NON-HISPANIC.

WHITE HISPANIC -- This group can be thought of as the Hispanic portion of the
                  White population, or as the White portion of the Hispanic
                  population.  Subtracting this group from TOTAL HISPANIC gives
                  the total number of Hispanics who are either Black,
                  American Indian or Alaska Native, or Asian or Pacific 
                  Islander.

WHITE NON-HISPANIC -- Whites who are not of Hispanic origin.  Subtracting this
                      group from TOTAL gives the total of all individuals who
                      are Hispanic and/or a member of a race group other than
                      White.

BLACK -- All individuals who are Black, regardless of Hispanic origin.

AMERICAN INDIAN -- All individuals who are American Indian or Alaska Native (a
                   category which includes Eskimos and Aleuts), regardless of
                   Hispanic origin.

ASIAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER -- All individuals who are Asian or Pacific Islander,
                            regardless of Hispanic origin.