Just 44% of voters that the Census Bureau would define as Hispanic define themselves that way. A Scott Rasmussen national survey found that, given a range of options, 22% define themselves as White, 17% as American, 6% as Black, 6% as Mixed, and 4% as Asian.
This data highlights the reality that racial and ethnic categories are not nearly as clear cut as political analysts often suggest.
Overall, 47% of voters nationwide define themselves as White; 31% say American; 11% Black; 5% Hispanic; 2% Asian; 2% Mixed; and, 2% Other.
This particular survey first asked questions about race and ethnicity in the same manner as the Census Bureau. Later, we asked respondents how they defined themselves. Similar research efforts suggest that the children and grandchildren of Hispanic immigrants tend to identify more with America as their home rather than their Hispanic heritage.
The Census Bureau asks people if they are of Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish origin and then ask a follow up question about their race. As a result, there are roughly 40 million people with some Hispanic ancestors who identify their race as White. A smaller number of voters labeled Hispanic identify their race as Black.
For anyone seeking to learn more about this topic, The Great Demographic Illusion by Richard Alba is an invaluable resource. Alba points out that many people now considered White were considered minorities in the 20th century. That includes Italians, Irish, Jews and many others. He also points out that people from Mexico were counted as White until 1980.
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Note: Neither Scott Rasmussen, ScottRasmussen.com, nor RMG Research, Inc. have any affiliation with Rasmussen Reports. While Scott Rasmussen founded that firm, he left more than seven years ago and has had no involvement since that time.
Methodology
The survey of 1,200 Registered Voters was conducted by Scott Rasmussen using a mixed mode approach from August 26-29, 2021. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc. Most respondents were contacted online or via text while 236 were contacted using automated phone polling techniques. Online respondents were selected from a list of Registered Voters and through a process of Random Digital Engagement. Certain quotas were applied, and the sample was lightly weighted by geography, gender, age, race, education, internet usage, and political party to reasonably reflect the nation’s population of Registered Voters. Other variables were reviewed to ensure that the final sample is representative of that population.
The margin of sampling error for the full sample is +/- 2.8 percentage points.
