Race and Hispanic Origin for Puerto Rico in Census 2000: An Evaluation

Matthew Christenson, U.S. Census Bureau

In Census 2000, questions on race and Hispanic origin were asked in Puerto Rico for the first time in many years. Prior to this, the last indication of the racial composition of Puerto Rico came from the 1950 census. During this census, enumerators entered the race of the respondent by observation. Due to the absence of information on race and Hispanic origin in the commonwealth during the last fifty years, there is much interest in how the residents of Puerto Rico responded to these questions. This study examines the data from Puerto Rico on the race and ethnicity questions from Census 2000. It identifies patterns in the responses to these questions by age, sex, educational attainment, income level, and the like. In addition, it compares these responses to those of Puerto Ricans and other Hispanic groups in the U.S.