How Many Arabs, Hispanics In America? US Census Bureau Moves To Add Middle Eastern, Latino Categories To Surveys

The U.S. Census Bureau has called for adding categories of Middle Eastern or Hispanic ethnicity in census surveys, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The move is likely to influence federal funding, the report noted.

The bureau is looking to add a new “Middle Eastern or North African” category to include those belonging to nationalities such as Iranian, Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian and Israeli, according to the Journal. These people currently mark themselves as “white” on the surveys.