White House adds race and ethnicity checkboxes for Hispanics and 'Middle ... trends now

The 2030 Census will include new race and ethnicity checkboxes for Hispanics and people of Middle Eastern and North African descent, the White House has said in a major shakeup on Thursday.

The announcement by the Office of Management and Budget is the first change to race and ethnicity categories in 27 years, and follows years of complaints that groups were being left out of population data.

This evolving process reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a desire by members of an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the federal government's data.

The change may mean a more accurate count for Hispanic Americans, who make up nearly a fifth of the US population. Middle Eastern and North African, or MENA, Americans are about 1.5 percent of the population.

Meeta Anand, a census expert at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said the move would have a major 'emotional impact' on people who felt they were being overlooked.

'It's how we conceive ourselves as a society,' Anand told AP.

'You are seeing a desire for people to want to self-identify and be reflected in data so they can tell their own stories.'

Under the revisions, questions about race and ethnicity that were once asked separately on forms will become a single question.

Respondents will be able to pick multiple categories at the same time, such as 'Black,' 'American Indian' and 'Hispanic.'

Previously, many Hispanic people were not sure how to answer the race question, according to research.

A Middle Eastern and North African category has been added to the choices available for questions about race and ethnicity.

That will help people who hail from Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, Syria, and

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