How are the race/ethnicity categories determined?
In Texas, there are four large race/ethnicity categories in common use: non-Hispanic white, black, Hispanic, and other. Several different methods are used to convert self-reported race and ethnicity responses into these four categories. One of the differences among methods is the categorization of Hispanic blacks. For population data, the Texas State Data Center includes Hispanic blacks in the Hispanic category. For Texas birth and death data, Hispanic blacks are included in the black category. (The impact of this difference is limited since less than 1% of Texas Hispanics indicated that they are black in the 2000 Census.) The problem is further complicated because the 2000 Census allowed respondents to mark more than one racial category. See the Texas State Data Center’s report Comparing Race/Ethnicity Between the 2000 Census and Earlier Censuses (external site) for further information.
