---
title: "Will the Census Bureau Rewrite its Race and Ethnicity Questions?"
description: "This posting links to a Fact Tank article explaining the Census Bureau's research into new question wording about race and ethnicity. The bureau is testing a combined question in an attempt to improve response rates and reduce the number of people who check \"some other race.\" "
date: "2014-03-15"
authors:
  - name: "D’Vera Cohn"
    job_title: "Former Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/dvera-cohn/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2014/03/15/will-the-census-bureau-rewrite-its-race-and-ethnicity-questions/"
categories:
  - "Race & Ethnicity"
---

# Will the Census Bureau Rewrite its Race and Ethnicity Questions?

The Census Bureau is in the midst of a years-long research project on how to improve its census questions about race and ethnicity. Results are in from an experiment that offered respondents a combined race-ethnicity question for the first time. Though indications are promising, much work remains. [Read more at Fact Tank](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/03/14/u-s-census-looking-at-big-changes-in-how-it-asks-about-race-and-ethnicity/).