Middle Eastern and North African people in Nevada who are often misclassified as white or undercounted by state service providers will have a choice to self-identify for the first time under a new sub-category that more accurately represents them.
As of Jan. 1, a new state law requires that all government agencies in Nevada collecting demographic information on race or ethnicity include a Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) question. Assemblywoman Brittney Miller, a Democrat representing Las Vegas, introduced the proposal last year. It passed with bipartisan support.
“The numbers of people of MENA descent are diluted and absorbed within other groups, rendering us almost invisible,” said Miller, whose father is Black and mother is Lebanese.
Lebanese, as well as Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian and Egyptian, were listed in the 2020 Census with German, Irish and English under “white.”
Miller said countless people in the state who are split among white, Black, Asian or Arab race and ethnic categories now have the choice to check a MENA box that captures the shared culture of this diverse and growing population.
Lawmakers in Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts and Nevada passed laws in 2023 to collect race and ethnicity data at a more granular level than the five racial and two ethnic categories mandated by the federal government since 1977. The additional data is part of a growing effort by states to collect detailed and accurate data that would help agencies identify gaps and trends in services including education, housing and healthcare of marginalized groups.
Approximately 17,000 Arabs live in Nevada, a 42% increase in the past two decades, according to census data. These statistics make Nevada’s Arab population one of the fastest-growing in the nation. The Arab world comprises 22 countries, primarily in the Middle East and North Africa, coming from vastly different cultural, linguistic and ethnic backgrounds. While Arabs make up the largest group in the region, other ethnic groups with a significant presence include Persians, Kurds and Armenians.
“This bill sends the message that our state recognizes, values, and counts our Nevadans of MENA descent,” Miller said.
Disaggregating Data
Meeta Anand, senior director of census and data equity at the Leadership Conference Education Fund, said documenting accurate race and ethnicity data at the state level can help address differences in access, enrollment and experience of social service recipients and even save lives.
The Education Fund is the research arm of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an advocacy group promoting civil and human rights protections in the U.S.
“When used effectively, disaggregated demographic data can help health programs and health systems address both historical inequities and provide high-quality, individualized, culturally competent health care,” Anand said during a recent press conference.
In late 2020, Santa Clara County, south of the Bay Area, began collecting detailed data on COVID-19 rates. The data showed the virus was hitting Filipino and Vietnamese people at a higher rate when compared with other Asian American groups.
Similarly, Asian Health Services, a federally-qualified community health center in neighboring Alameda County, found around the same time that Vietnamese residents had nearly twice the case rates of the aggregated Asian American population, according to Anand.
A response team began conducting targeted education to the impacted communities and outreach to other targeted areas across the state. Soon after, the positivity rates leveled out for this group, Anand said at the press conference.
“Had collection been limited only to aggregated data under, for example, a broad Asian and Pacific Islander category, lives would have been lost,” Anand said.
In California, a law implemented in 2012 requires state agencies to document detailed data for Asian and Pacific Islander groups listing an array of ethnic and racial groups, including Chinese, Filipino, Guamanian, Japanese, Vietnamese and Samoan.
Starting this year, state agency applicants in California will also have the option to identify as descendants of people who were enslaved in the U.S., African Blacks, American Freedmen and Caribbean Blacks.
Beyond the Federal Standard
Today, 13 states require race and ethnicity data beyond the federal standard, according to a report by the Education Fund titled “Disaggregation Nation,” published in December.
In 1977, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) developed the Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, a policy establishing a minimum set of categories that all federal agencies and federally-funded programs are required to use if they intend to collect information on race and ethnicity.
According to the OMB’s Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards, the directive largely stemmed from federal responsibilities to enforce civil rights laws.
The racial and ethnic categories used throughout the federal government since 1997, when the policy was last updated, include American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White, Hispanic/Latino and Not Hispanic/Latino.
State and local health departments use the OMB as a default standard but have the authority to collect data on additional ethnic and racial subgroups, so long as this data can be aggregated into the standard categories when shared with the federal government, according to the Education Fund report.
The report provides a comprehensive review of laws and pending bills in 50 states and the District of Columbia as more states adopt policies to collect detailed demographic data to identify an array of races and ethnic groups.
Connecticut, Oregon, Massachusetts and Washington are the only states that mandate disaggregated data on all federal categories. Only five states – Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon and Washington – have a category including Middle Eastern/North African or MENA.
At least 25 states had pending bills or advocacy groups pushing for the expansion of race and ethnicity data collection when the report was issued. Seventeen states did not have laws or pending bills, the report said.
Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, a national civil rights advocacy organization, said states that lack data equity are likely masking serious economic hardships of vulnerable populations, including newly arrived immigrants and refugees. She said without a MENA subcategory, hate crimes have gone under-reported and political representation has diminished in many states.
“Federal guidelines are the floor, not the ceiling for states,” Berry said. “Data collection is directly tied to our ability to improve people's lives and to set better policy objectives.”