Most Americans say they are very familiar with their roots, but the strength of their attachment to them varies by race and Hispanic origin, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted to explore themes of self-identity ahead of last year’s U.S. decennial census. Black and Hispanic adults were more likely than White adults to say their origins are central to their identity and that they feel a strong connection to their family’s cultural roots.

Overall, six-in-ten U.S. adults said they are very familiar with their origins, according to the survey. But not quite half (46%) said they feel a strong connection to their family’s cultural roots. And only a third said their origin is central to their identity.

However, Hispanic adults, especially immigrants, were more likely to be familiar with their origins than single-race Black or White adults. A majority of Hispanic and Black respondents, but not of Whites, said they feel a strong connection to their roots. And about half or more of Hispanic and Black respondents said their origin is central to their identity, but only about a quarter of Whites said so.

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The survey findings about familiarity and connection to one’s origins are closely related. Those who were familiar with their origins were far more likely to feel strong connections to their roots and see their origins as central to their identity, and the reverse was also true.

Hispanic adults’ greater familiarity and connection with their origins may be linked in part to the immigrant experience. About eight-in-ten Hispanic immigrants said they are very familiar with their origins (83%) and they feel a strong connection to family cultural origins (81%), both higher shares than for U.S.-born Hispanics or other groups of Americans. Among Hispanic adults, 45% were immigrants in 2019, compared with 11% of non-Hispanic adults, according to Pew Research Center tabulations of the American Community Survey.

Meanwhile, many White adults say they are not familiar with or connected to their origins, according to the survey. Some researchers have argued that ethnicity may be seen as “optional” by certain groups whose ancestors arrived in the U.S. generations ago and intermarried, such as some White Americans with long-ago European roots.

The survey findings that origins are central for a higher share of Black and Hispanic adults than White adults squares with other research that race plays a more important role in identity for Asian, Black and Hispanic adults than for White adults. In a survey conducted in 2019, most Asian, Black and Hispanic adults said that their race is very or extremely important to how they see themselves. This consciousness stretches back to childhood in many cases. Black adults especially (but also Asian Americans and Hispanics) were more likely than White adults to say their families spoke with them when they were growing up about the challenges or advantages they might face because of their race or ethnicity.

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The number of Americans who identify with more than one race is growing faster than those who check a single race, according to Census Bureau estimates. Previous research also has found that multiracial Americans have a more fluid racial identity than single-race Americans, and were among several smaller racial groups that were more likely to have changed their racial identity from one census to another.

Similarly, Pew Research Center survey findings from 2015 indicate a “multiracial identity gap” – that is, many Americans of multiracial backgrounds do not identify as such, especially if their ancestors are particularly remote. The share of adults who could be considered multiracial ranges from 1.4% (people who say they themselves are of more than one race) to 13.1% (if the races of great-grandparents and earlier biological ancestors are included). About nine-in-ten of the most distant group do not consider themselves to be multiracial, and survey findings suggest that is often because they never met a relative of a different race.

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The census two-step process first asked respondents whether they are Hispanic or Latino or of Spanish origin, and to specify which one, such as Mexican or Cuban. The next question asked respondents to identify their race from a list of categories, with more than one selection possible. Respondents who selected any race category had an opportunity to write in their origins, replicating the 2020 decennial census form and its addition of a write-in for White and Black origins with examples such as German or Ethiopian.¹

On the Pew Research Center survey’s 2020 census questions, about nine-in-ten adults (88%) provided an origin as requested. Among Black and White respondents, who were only offered write-in areas, more White (82%) than Black respondents (61%) provided them. {snip}

A variety of European origins dominated among respondents who selected White on the census race question and provided a usable response, with English, German or similar ancestries chosen by 84%. Among all Black respondents to the census race question and those who provided a usable response in the survey, 83% chose African American as their origin, rather than a specific country.

On the survey’s question from the 2020 census about Hispanic origin, 95% of Hispanics provided one, such as Mexican, Cuban or Salvadoran. In most cases it was a national origin.

The Census Bureau questions are not intended to measure the strength of Americans’ ties to their backgrounds. Consistent with this, even among those in the Pew Research Center survey who are very familiar with their origins, about a third (34%) said they do not feel a strong connection to them. For example, among White adults who are very familiar with their roots, 44% said they do not feel a strong connection.

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