Evaluating Census 2000 Hispanic Data

Eileen Diaz McConnell, Indiana University
Betsy Guzman, U.S. Census Bureau

Census 2000 results indicate that the Hispanic population is the largest and fastest growing racial or ethnic minority group in the United States. Census 2000 has been lauded as the "most accurate census" in history. Nevertheless, evaluating the quality of Hispanic data in the 2000 census is important considering the political significance of decennial census data and the estimated undercount of Hispanics in 2000 census. We compare the percent total difference and relative difference of the size and characteristics of the Hispanic population counted by Census 2000 with Hispanic data from the 2000 Current Population Survey and the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey. The findings provide the first evaluation of the quality of the Census 2000 Hispanic data as well as the first study to compare federal data sources specifically about the Hispanic population in the United States.