Study: Multiple Race Option in Census May Be More Popular Than Expected

A study by Princeton researchers suggests that many more people are likely to identify with more than one race in the 2000 census than previously thought. The results of the count, the first to allow respondents to mark more than one race, may pose new challenges for making civil rights policies and tracking social and economic inequality.

Based on a new analysis of data from earlier surveys, Joshua Goldstein and Ann Morning of the Princeton Office of Population Research estimate the number of Americans likely to mark multiple races at some 8 to 18 million, several times greater than previous estimates by the government. The vast majority of likely multiple race respondents chose "White" when faced with the traditional single-response race question, the study found.

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