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On Good Terms: How to Ask Race and Ethnicity in Inclusive and Sensitive Way:

The IDEA Council published a report, “How to ask race and ethnicity in a more inclusive and sensitive way” in early April 2022, and presented the findings at the Insights Association’s Annual Conference.

Here are some high-level takeaways:

• Ask race and ethnicity only if needed—consider the objectives, audience, and context of the study.

• If race and ethnicity data are needed, use the recommended approaches from top-performing questions (see the report for details).

• Allow multiple responses

• Have detailed and inclusive response options

• Use “Prefer to self-identify” and/or include "Not Listed" with write-in options (don't use “other”)

• Include a “Prefer not to answer" option so participants may opt out of the question

As an industry, we need to continue to test, learn and evolve methods of collecting demographics and designing samples for more inclusive and representative results.