Questions Asked: Hispanic Origin

The 2020 Census will ask a series of questions about you and each person who lives with you. When responding, you’ll record the Hispanic origin of each person who is living in your home on April 1, 2020.

We understand you might have questions about providing this information. Here are some guidelines for responding:

• Your answer to this question should be based on how you identify. Each person can decide how to answer.
• You are free to choose where to report your identity and which boxes to mark, or not to mark.
• You are not required to mark a checkbox category in order to enter a response in the write-in area. You may respond by entering your specific identity or identities in the write-in response area on the Hispanic origin question.
• If you don't know the answer, please move on to the next question.
• In the online questionnaire, if you check the “Another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin” checkbox, but leave the origin field blank, a message will appear at the top of the screen and the blank field will be highlighted in red. If you do not know this person's origin, click next again to continue completing your response.

The information below, listed in the same order as the questionnaire, is provided to help you respond:

Hispanic or Latino:

The category “Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin" includes all individuals who identify with one or more nationalities or ethnic groups originating in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Central and South America, and other Spanish cultures. Examples of these groups include, but are not limited to, Mexican or Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran, Dominican, and Colombian. “Hispanic, Latino or Spanish origin” also includes groups such as Guatemalan, Honduran, Spaniard, Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Venezuelan, etc. If a person is not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin, answer "No, not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin".

There are individual checkboxes for people who identify as:

• Not of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin
• Mexican, Mexican Am., Chicano
• Puerto Rican
• Cuban
• Another Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin (for example, Salvadoran, Dominican, Colombian, Guatemalan, Spaniard, Ecuadorian, etc.)

More about the Question

We ask the question this way to comply with the federal government’s standards—provided by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget—for collecting data on race and Hispanic origin.

First, the question is based on how you identify. Second, the standards require us to collect and report data for a minimum of two ethnicities: “Hispanic or Latino” and “Not Hispanic or Latino.” The standards define “Hispanic or Latino” as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.