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Census 2000Race/Ethnicity Data ComparisonRace/ethnicity data from the 1990 and 2000 Censuses are not directly comparable. The race/ethnicity question in 1990 had 5 possible responses. The five categories were expanded to six in 2000. However, respondents were allowed to give multiple responses in 2000 instead of only selecting one category. The 2000 questionnaire allowed 63 responses.There was a separate question for Hispanic Origin/Latino in both 1990 and 2000. Counts of Hispanic Origin/Latino are basically comparable between the Censuses. When Hispanic Origin/Latino are cross tabulated with the race/ethnicity question, the number of possible responses go from 10 in 1990 to 126 in 2000. There is a tendency to compare information from 1990 and 2000 for the race/ethnicity data tabulations. Any comparison is statistically invalid because of the changes in the way the data was collected. When comparisons are made, the reader should be aware of the assumptions the author has made. |
