How Many Americans Change Their Racial Identification over Time?

Abstract

Despite long-standing assumptions about racial identity as a fixed characteristic, social scientists have increasingly recognized its fluidity and examined the origins of micro-level race change. However, knowledge regarding the prevalence of race change is limited. This data visualization fills this descriptive gap by providing a comprehensive account of recent levels of racial self-identification change among Americans. The author uses five high-quality panel surveys in which race is asked of the same nationally representative adult samples several years apart. Among all respondents, race change rates range from 5 percent to 12 percent across surveys, averaging 8 percent. Original white identifiers (4 percent on average) are much less prone to change than initial nonwhites collectively (20 percent). Blacks have as stable identities as whites, while mixed-race (52 percent) and “other”-race (73 percent) Americans undergo substantial identity shifts over time. Results further cement a perspective of race as flexible for some in the United States.