The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has published a set of revisions to its “Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity” – the first since 1997.
The updated standards released by OMB on March 28 make key revisions to questions used to collect information on race and ethnicity, including adding Middle Eastern or North African as a new minimum race and ethnicity category on Federal surveys.
Other revisions include using one combined question for race and ethnicity, and encouraging respondents to select as many options as apply to how they identify; requiring the collection of additional detail beyond the minimum required race and ethnicity categories for most situations, to ensure further disaggregation in the collection, tabulation, and presentation of data when useful and appropriate; and updating definitions, terminology, and guidance to agencies on the collection and presentation of data.
In June 2022, OMB convened the Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards to develop recommendations for improving the quality and usefulness of Federal race and ethnicity data.
The working group consisted of Federal government career staff representing 35 agencies, which reviewed 20,000 comments and held almost 100 listening sessions to finalize the set of revisions to Statistical Policy Directive No. 15.
“Thanks to the hard work of staff across dozens of federal agencies and input from thousands of members of the public, these updated standards will help create more useful, accurate, and up to date federal data on race and ethnicity,” Chief Statistician of the United States Karin Orvis wrote in a blog post. “These revisions will enhance our ability to compare information and data across federal agencies, and also to understand how well federal programs serve a diverse America.”
The Office of the U.S. Chief Statistician announced it will direct its efforts to help agencies collect and release data under these updated standards “as quickly as possible.”
The standards instruct Federal agencies to begin updating their surveys and administrative forms as quickly as possible, submit an Agency Action Plan for complete compliance within 18 months – which will be publicly available – and finish bringing all data collections and programs into compliance with the updated standards within five years of the revisions.
Additionally, OMB announced it is establishing an Interagency Committee on Race and Ethnicity Statistical Standards – convened by the Office of the U.S. Chief Statistician – that will maintain and carry out a government-wide research agenda and undertake regular reviews of Directive No. 15.
“This monumental effort was informed by the perspectives of staff across federal agencies and the members of the public who took the time to submit written comments, provide views at one of the virtual town halls, meet with the Working Group, and participate in our Tribal consultation,” Orvis wrote. “We are committed to maintaining a collaborative approach as we work to implement these new revisions.”
