Data Impacts of Changes in U.S. Census Bureau Procedures for Race and Ethnicity Data
Department of Epidemiology Seminar Series
Speaker:
Elizabeth Arias, PhD
Mortality Statistics & Research Team, Division of Vital Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics
Abstract: Beginning with the 2020 decennial census and the 2020 American Community Survey (ACS), the U.S. Census Bureau implemented changes in question design, data processing, and coding procedures for the race and ethnicity data they collect that appears to have resulted in major data discontinuity. We explore the impact of the Census Bureau’s procedural changes on the racial and ethnic distributions of the Hispanic and the American Indian and Alaska Native populations, the two populations most impacted by these changes. We use the 2019 and 2021 one-year ACS public-use microdata and 2019 and 2021 NCHS mortality data to compare racial distributions and estimate and compare select demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, and mortality measures across the two years. We find a significant data discontinuity impacting a wide variety of demographic, socioeconomic, and vital statistics data and analyses that rely on U.S. Census Bureau data as input for calculations.
Bio: Dr. Elizabeth Arias leads the Mortality Statistics and Research Team in the Statistical Analysis and Surveillance Branch, Division of Vital Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). The team is responsible for the preparation and release of the annual final US mortality data file and the publication of standard annual reports describing the mortality profile of the US population and conducting research on special topics in mortality.
Dr. Arias also directs the NCHS US Life Table Program under which the official US life tables are generated. She has worked to expand the Program’s racial, ethnic, and geographic coverage, developing methods to address data quality limitations. Under her leadership life tables have been added for the Hispanic, Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native, and NonHispanic Asian populations. She also added annual state life tables by sex to the Program and led the United States Small-area Life Expectancy Estimates Project (USALEEP) under which the first ever life tables by US census tracts were produced.
Dr. Arias is currently exploring the intersection of race and ethnicity in mortality disparities within the Hispanic/Latino population. Dr. Arias received her PhD in Sociology (Demography) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.