Race, Ethnicity, and Economic Statistics for the 21st Century

The findings from the 2020 U.S. Census of Population in comparison to those of the 2010 Census illustrate the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the population in the United States, as well as a rise in the number of people who identify as multiracial (Jensen et al. 2023). The U.S. Census Bureau has developed a series of innovative reports and interactive data visualizations to help the public explore and analyze various measures of racial and ethnic composition and diversity measures, such as the diversity index, prevalence maps, prevalence rankings, and diffusion scores. As a result of the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of the population, race and ethnicity categories and definitions may need to be updated if the demographic statistics on which government officials, business decision makers, and private citizens rely are to clearly present the changing U.S. population. This conference volume explores the production of meaningful and innovative economic statistics by race and ethnicity that accurately and appropriately depict the complex racial and ethnic diversity of the U.S. population in the 21st century. Papers in this volume examine the consequences for economic analyses of different measurement choices concerning race and ethnicity, introduce new data sets with richer demographic information, compare measures of race and ethnicity in administrative vs. survey data sets, and apply the existing data in creative ways to better characterize the changing U.S. workforce and illuminate important policy questions