Report Publish Date: February 14, 2025

This research agenda investigates and proposes solutions for how we can better collect, analyze, and report data about multiracial and multiethnic people and populations and increase data equity for these groups. 

Primary Takeaways

We organized the research priorities based on three key stages in the data lifecycle:

Collection

• Explore state-level data systems (particularly for vital statistics) and identify supports that would help improve the common denominator for data collection, coding, analysis, and reporting purposes at the federal level for multiracial and multiethnic populations.
• Examine how to structure race and ethnicity data collection tools and analytic practices that take into account the fluidity and complexity of multiracial and multiethnic identity.
• Explore various data collection approaches, such as question design and inclusive language, that support respondents selecting multiple race and/ or ethnicity categories, when applicable, and explore procedures that allow individuals who are multiracial and/or multiethnic to identify which category or categories they are assigned to if they need to be aggregated into a group.
• Explore the implications of the combined race and ethnicity question for multiracial and multiethnic populations that identify as Hispanic/Latino in combination with other racial and ethnic categories.

Analysis

• Explore how OMB/Census Bureau coding procedures contributed to the increases in the multiracial population in the 2020 Census to generate recommendations for coding procedures that do not artificially inflate numbers.
• Explore alternatives to “two or more races” using OMB guidance to understand implications for population groups in different multiracial and multiethnic coding scenarios
• Explore which bridging techniques support improved categorization across time.
• Explore the health-related access and outcomes experiences of multiracial and multiethnic populations by providing research supplements to already approved Federally-funded health studies that allow researchers to oversample multiracial and multiethnic populations.
• Examine health data systems and determine what race and ethnicity data changes are needed to maximize interoperability as race and ethnicity data collection evolves with the new SPD 15 guidance.
• Explore which data collection and analytic practices improve data compatibility across datasets, including healthcare data and electronic health records.

Reporting

• Explore state-level coding and reporting practices to identify the rationale for the reporting practice and potential supports needed to engage in best practices as it pertains to reporting on multiracial and multiethnic populations.
• Explore the impacts of shifting standards on data privacy and quality and the utility of the shifting data analytic practices for the multiracial and multiethnic populations that are impacted.
  

Overview and Objectives

Health researchers do not have a shared set of standards with which to measure the health and wellbeing of people with multiracial and multiethnic backgrounds. The authors wanted to understand what our priorities should be for developing better minimum standards for data about multiracial and multiethnic identities and for researching how to improve the ways we collect, analyze, and report data about multiracial and multiethnic people. 

Hypothesis or Approach 

The authors reviewed literature, conducted one-on-one interviews with experts, and conducted a virtual focus group to discuss and prioritize key methodological issues and research ideas. 

How This Influences Change

The report includes a set of research priorities that may help improve data equity for multiracial and multiethnic people.