Counting Race: How the Census Measures Identity and What Americans Think About It
How the U.S. government measures race has changed substantially since censuses began in 1790. Today, Americans differ on whether the government should ask about race.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Race and Ethnicity
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The changing categories the U.S. census has used to measure race
Racial categories, which have been on every U.S. census, have changed from decade to decade, reflecting the politics and science of the times.
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Key facts about U.S. Latinos
Between 2000 and 2024, the U.S. Latino population nearly doubled, rising from 35.3 million to 68 million.
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Q&A: How Pew Research Center estimates the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S.
In this Q&A, we speak with Senior Demographer Jeffrey S. Passel about how the Center estimates the number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S.
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U.S. Unauthorized Immigrant Population Reached a Record 14 Million in 2023
The number of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S. reached an all-time high after two consecutive years of record growth.
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What the data says about immigrants in the U.S.
As of June 2025, the country’s foreign-born population had shrunk by more than a million people, marking its first decline since the 1960s.
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About 1 in 4 U.S. adults worry they or someone close to them could be deported
About four-in-ten immigrants (43%) say they worry a lot or some, up from 33% in March.
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U.S. public is split on birthright citizenship for people whose parents immigrated illegally
Half of U.S. adults say people born in the United States to parents who immigrated illegally should have U.S. citizenship, while 49% say they should not.
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Views of Race, Policing and Black Lives Matter in the 5 Years Since George Floyd’s Killing
Americans have expressed skepticism that attention to racial issues after Floyd’s killing led to changes that improved Black people’s lives.
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Key facts about Asians in the U.S.
The number of Asian Americans grew from 11.9 million in 2000 to 24.8 million in 2023.
