Ethnic classification in the national census, 1985-2012: Evidence from the Ethnicity Counts? project

A basic but fundamental question to arise from the dramatic changes in immigration flows is whether countries have moved towards greater recognition of ethnic diversity in the official statistical sources that provide the basis for evidence-based policy. Numerous case studies have examined how and why governments in particular times and places count their populations by ethnicity but studies that are both cross-national and longitudinal are rare. In this paper we present preliminary findings from the Ethnicity Counts? database of ethnicity questions drawn from national censuses and population registers of more than 200 countries spanning 1985 to 2014. We find a clear shift towards the recognition of ethnic difference in national censuses, although this has occurred unevenly across time and place. In any given round, questions on language dominate, followed by ethnicity, mother tongue and ethnic nationality. The language of race remains, for the most part, confined to the former slaveholding societies in the Americas including the Caribbean and some of US territories in Oceania. Interestingly, the shift towards ethnic enumeration has been accompanied by an increase in state inquiries into citizenship and parental birthplace, suggesting that ethnic and civic enumeration operate as dual strategies of state surveillance.