Races and ethnicities

Addressing Data Gaps Stemming from Structural Inequities

Health inequities arise from deep-rooted issues of structural racism and oppression, often resulting in gaps in data collection. We strive to present the most comprehensive reports based on the best available data.

However, we acknowledge these limitations, especially in areas like the Census Island Areas (US territories excluding Puerto Rico), where detailed subpopulation rates by age, sex, and race/ethnicity are scarce.

Our ongoing efforts aim to bridge these data gaps, ensuring more informed and effective health policies across the United States.

Dataset Definitions and Contextual Variances. All reports on the site reflect the race and ethnicity categorization used by their respective data sources. In some cases we have relabelled or combined groups to promote more inclusive language and allow comparisons. The majority of these sources adhere to the U.S. Census groupings, which record race as one of five options, and ethnicity as either having or not having Hispanic origin. Due to the inherent complexity of visualizing these related but distinct demographic dimensions, the sources ultimately combine the race and ethnicity groups in one of two ways: Each race group explicitly excludes people of Hispanic origin, and another group Hispanic or Latino is added that combines all people of Hispanic origin, regardless of their race. Each race group is based solely on the reported race, regardless of Hispanic origin. In these cases, the additional Hispanic or Latino group is still added combining all people of Hispanic origin, regardless of their race, however the groups are no longer mutually exclusive and some people (e.g. those identifying as both Black and Hispanic) will be represented in multiple groups. This also means percentages of the total population will no longer sum to 100%, so provide alerting to the user that care should be used in analysis. It's crucial to recognize that the precise definition of a race or ethnicity is intrinsically tied to the context of the specific dataset from which it originates. For instance, the inclusion of an Other category can influence how individuals are categorized, potentially affecting distinctions like Asian vs. Other. Per the U.S. Census FAQ: “The race and ethnicity categories generally reflect social definitions in the U.S. and are not an attempt to define race and ethnicity biologically, anthropologically, or genetically. We recognize that the race and ethnicity categories include racial, ethnic, and national origins and sociocultural groups.”

Ethnicities

Hispanic/Latino

Definition: Any race(s), Hispanic/Latino.

General considerations: Generally, all race/ethnicity groups on the tracker include Hispanic/Latino individuals, unless otherwise specified as (NH). Individuals who identify as Hispanic/Latino may not be recorded in their respective race category in certain datasets.

Explore Hispanic/Latino resources →

Races

Indigenous

Definition: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment. Many of our data sources report this category as “American Indian and Alaska Native”.

General considerations: Many states do not record data for “Indigenous” or “American Indian and Alaska Native”, often grouping these individuals into other categories.

Explore Indigenous resources →

Asian

Definition: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Considerations: The Asian category often includes cases previously classified as "Asian/Pacific Islander" under the pre-1997 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) race/ethnicity classification system when querying HIV prevalence.

Explore Asian resources →

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

Definition: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

General considerations: ‘Percent of vaccinated’ comparison population metrics for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander are sourced from the ACS 5-year estimates. Many states do not record data for the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander racial categories, often grouping these individuals into other categories.

Black or African American

Definition: A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.

Unrepresented race

Definition: A single race not tabulated by the CDC. Individuals not identifying as one of the distinct races listed in the source data are grouped together as “Some other race”. This is a problem as it obscures racial identity for many individuals. In our effort to take transformative action towards achieving health equity the Satcher Health Leadership Institute has decided to rename this category on our reports to highlight it as a health equity issue. For PrEP coverage, Unrepresented race is used to recognize individuals who do not identify as part of the Black, White, or Hispanic ethnic or racial groups.

Two or more races

Definition: Combinations of two or more of the following race categories: "White," "Black or African American," "American Indian or Alaska Native," "Asian," "Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander," or "Some Other Race". We have chosen to use the term "Two or more races" rather than "Multiracial" as some data sources have used.

Two or more races & Unrepresented race

Definition: People who are either multiple races or a single race not represented by the data source’s categorization.

General considerations: The presence of "Other" within a dataset can change the classification of certain individuals.

White

Definition: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.

Considerations: The U.S. Census does not currently collect data on Middle Eastern or North African ethnicity; those individuals have historically been categorized as White and continue to be classified as such. This can obscure important trends in this marginalized population.

Additional Groups

Middle Eastern / North African (MENA)

Definition: Race/ethnicity grouping collected by CAWP but not currently collected by the U.S. Census.

General considerations: The U.S. Census currently does not collect population data for the MENA demographic. MENA individuals are counted by the ACS as White.

Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander; Asian American & Pacific Islander; Native American, Alaska Native, & Native Hawaiian

Definition: Various composite groups used primarily by the CAWP dataset to represent non-standard race/ethnicity data reporting.

General considerations: The U.S. Census no longer combines Asian and Pacific Islander into a single group.

Unknown

Definition: Cases of a topic condition that were recorded, but which did not provide complete race/ethnicity information.

General considerations: For reports that use a rate per 100k, Unknown cannot be represented alongside the known race/ethnicity groups, as the denominator population is always known. However, it is important to understand the percentage of total cases where race/ethnicity is missing, as this may be an important indicator of health inequities and unfair data collection practices.

All

Definition: Any race or ethnicity, including cases of a topic with unknown race/ethnicity.

General considerations: Rates for this group will not always be an average of the other known race groups, since the ALL category includes cases with unknown race/ethnicity. Though it reflect all people regardless of race/ethnicity, this group might only reflect a specific sub-population in terms of other demographics like age (e.g. for topics that only measure cases among adults).