Race and ethnicity in censuses

[4] The Portuguese asked about race in colonial censuses when they controlled Angola, and they provided three options: White, Mestiço, or African/Black.

[6][9][10][11][12][13] There were some concerns about asking an ethnicity equation in the 2009 census since it came just a year after the disputed Kenyan presidential election of 2007 and the riots that followed it.

[14][15] The number of ethnic categories and sub-categories recorded in the country's census has changed significantly over time, expanding from 42 in 1969 to more than 120 in 2019.

[20] The race categories in Mozambique were the same ones as in Angola, due to both being controlled by Portugal before acquiring their independence.

[25][26] The Italian Somaliland census of 1935 reported that the remaining 6.2% of the area's population consisted of "Negroid groups", including the Bantu ethnic minorities inhabiting the southern riverine region.

[28] However, the general government literature maintained that the country's ethnic Somali majority was of Hamitic stock, or alternately of Arab heritage.

[30] In 2014, the Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation also announced that it would release a new national population census before 2016.

[6] However, Israel has used the religion question on its census to determine the ethnic composition of its population from 1948 to the present day.

[70][71] The Bolsheviks also wanted to get more support from ethnic minority groups within the Soviet Union, many of whom were previously oppressed under Tsarist rule.

[40][41] The Soviet Union (to which Uzbekistan also belonged) enumerated people by ethnicity for its entire existence.

[6] The British Colony of Aden (which is within Yemen's current borders) enumerated its population by ethnicity in 1946 and 1955.

[42] Also, there is a desire to avoid repeating what Vichy France did in regards to its Jewish population and to prevent the National Front from getting more popularity.

[118] It is illegal to collect statistics about the race, ethnicity, religion or ancestry of Luxembourg citizens.

[126] In the census of 1970, in limited areas in Northern Norway, people were identified by ethnicity and language.

A question of this kind was recommended to be included for the first time for the 2021 census ("Censos 2021"),[130] which sparked some controversy.

[151] The United Kingdom previously planned to enumerate people by ethnicity in 1981, but changed its mind after the large non-response rate to this question in the 1979 Test Census.

[161][162] Costa Rica asked a question on ethnic or racial ancestral origins in the 2022 census using multiple options including indigenous, Black or Afro-descendant, Mulatto, Chinese, Mestizo, white and other.

[6] The 2022 Dominican Republic Census asked people to choose from "black", "white", "indio", "mulato", "mestizo", "Asian", and "other".

Before the U.S. acquired independence from Great Britain, many of the Thirteen Colonies conducted censuses of their own where they enumerated their populations by race.

[176] Between 1850 and 1870, and in 1890, 1910, and 1920, the U.S. Census Bureau also enumerated Mulattoes and sometimes other partially black groups (Quadroons and Octoroons) separately.

[176] President Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted a "good neighbor" policy that sought better relations with Mexico.

Mexico protested, and Roosevelt decided to circumvent the decision and make sure the federal government treated Hispanics as white.

This policy encouraged the League of United Latin American Citizens in its quest to minimize discrimination by asserting their whiteness.

[181] In addition to a Hispanic/Latino ethnicity question that has appeared on the census short form since 1980 (based on the US Office of Management and Budget's official categories specified in 1977).

Before 1970, Alaska and Hawaii had different choices for race on their censuses in contrast to the continental United States.

[184] The 2020 United States Census might allow Middle Easterners and North Africans to write in their ethnicity/race instead of merely marking them as White.

[185] This began in the early twentieth century when Arabs coming to the United States successfully petitioned to be marked as White in order to avoid entry quotas and have a greater chance of achieving success and avoiding discrimination.

[185][187] The United States is one of the countries that uses racial and ethnic census data in order to create minority-majority districts, as is required by the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

[197] The Brazilian census classifies people by race as either white, black, pardo (brown), yellow (Asian), or indigenous.

In the 2017 census, questions about culture and ancestors were asked in more detail for the first time for the population of 12 years old and above.