Assessing Availability and Quality of Administrative Records for Asian Americans and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders: Introduction and Federal Database Analysis

The role of administrative records—defined as records collected by state, local, or federal government agencies for the implementation of programs—has grown substantially over the last several decades in the planning, implementation, processing, and quality measurement of the United States Census Bureau’s decennial census. Given this rising reliance on administrative records, and the Census Bureau’s current research into even deeper use of them in the 2030 Census, it is important that we understand the strengths and limitations of increased administrative records usage. This research project sets out to understand one key component of these strengths and limitations—the coverage of race information, specifically for the Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities, in administrative records.

In order to achieve this goal, we assess the coverage and suitability of federal and state data collections that identify Asian American and NHPI populations. Specifically, we are interested in federal and state administrative records, and the degree to which they not only include Asian American and NHPI communities, but also to what extent they provide disaggregated race data on these populations. To better evaluate this topic, we focus on governmental census, survey, and administrative records that collect information on individuals.