The signal

The Census Bureau has proposed a rule that would bar any question about race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation from the decennial census short form and from any questionnaire used to count the population. It was published in the Federal Register on September 10, 2026, as document 2026-18481. Comments are open until November 2, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

The word

“Immaterial.” The rule's summary says the census count “factors in an element of allegiance but otherwise should be colorblind and should not be distorted in any way by questions about immaterial personal characteristics, such as race.”

The same notice says that “demographic questions have been asked in every census since 1790.” It cites, as examples of “shifts in the law”: a concurrence in Students for Fair Admissions describing race as a “social construct”; Allen v. Milligan (2026), cited for “describing the Constitution as ‘colorblind’”; Louisiana v. Callais (2026), cited for “clarifying legal standards under the Voting Rights Act of 1965”; and an executive order on federal DEI programs. In a footnote it adds that the Department of Commerce “has recognized the ‘arbitrary nature’ of racial and ethnic categories.”

What it actually does

The rule would create a new Part 70 of the Census Bureau's regulations. Its core sentence, section 70.2(a): “No question about race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation shall appear on the short form decennial census questionnaire or any questionnaire used for the enumeration of the population.”

Three questions may still be included: “biological sex, date of birth, and household relationships,” kept “for the sake of facilitating data verification.” Every other demographic question would become optional: “no person shall be obligated to furnish a response to any demographic question as part of the decennial census,” with those three as the exception.

The notice describes its own reach two ways. The preamble says: “The Census Bureau is proposing restrictions only for the short-form decennial census questionnaire.” Section 70.2(a), quoted above, would also cover “any questionnaire used for the enumeration of the population.” The notice does not say how the two fit together.

What it would not restrict, in section 70.4: the Bureau's “ability to ask demographic questions on the American Community Survey or any other surveys that are not used for the enumeration of the population, or to receive demographic data from other sources.”

The notice gives some of its reasons in its own words: in general, the more questions on the form, “the lower the overall response rate”; each demographic question “increases the likelihood that the data of certain people who do respond will be identifiable in the resulting published data”; answering the census is required by law, and “the failure to do so constitutes a federal crime”; and the shifts in the law it cites above.

The Bureau's own Preliminary Regulatory Impact Analysis, a document marked as a draft that the Bureau posted to the same docket, describes “key dependencies” built on the annual release of estimates for race and ethnicity, such as “population controls for major federal surveys” and “required information for state and federal grants and other funding formulas.” It says: “To produce and release these data, the decennial census counts of the population by race and ethnicity are relied upon, as there are no other comparably accurate, comprehensive, and reliable sources of this information.” And: “Omitting race and ethnicity from the 2030 Census questionnaire would require the development of estimates from a base population derived from outdated and/or less accurate data and would deteriorate the accuracy of the estimation method itself.”

The same notice, under the same docket, separately proposes new rules on whether and where people are counted, in a Part 60 it says is proposed “independently based on its own merits.” Under its section 60.4, citizens of foreign countries who are not also citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States “as of April 1 of a decennial census year” would be “Not counted for apportionment,” the count that divides House seats among the states.

This is a proposal, not a final rule.

Who it hit

The rule would reach the forms the count is taken on: the short form and “any questionnaire used for the enumeration of the population.”

The notice also names a second use of the count. The Secretary of Commerce is “required, by statute, to share final census population tabulations with participating States for purposes of (re)districting.” The Census Bureau's own page on that program says: “Since the first Census Redistricting Data Program, conducted as part of the 1980 census, the U.S. Census Bureau has included summaries for the major race groups specified by the Statistical Programs and Standards Office of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in Directive 15 (as issued in 1977 and revised in 1997).”

The notice does not say whether race would appear in that file without the question. It says the Bureau may still “receive demographic data from other sources” (section 70.4).