The U.S. government is changing how it classifies people by race and ethnicity in a move that officials hope will better count people who identify as Hispanic or of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.
美国联邦政府正在改变按种族和民族对人口进行分类的方式，官员们希望此举能够更好地统计西班牙语裔或中东裔和北非裔的人口。

Announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, the revisions are the first changes to the official categories in 27 years and mark an attempt to more accurately count the U.S. population. Those who support the revisions say they will better reflect people's identities and help define voting districts, among other things.
美国管理和预算办公室（Office of Management and Budget）周四（3月28日）宣布，此次修订是27年来首次对这些官方类别进行修改，标志着更准确地统计美国人口的尝试。支持修订的人表示，修订将更好地反映人们的身份，并有助于定义投票区等。

Some people living in the United States won’t see the changes until the next once-a-decade census in 2030, but others may see the revisions reflected sooner in other forms and surveys from the federal government as well as state governments and private businesses and universities that take their cue from Washington.
一些居住在美国的人要到2030年下一次的十年一次的人口普查才能看到这些变化，但其他人可能会更快地看到这些修改反映在联邦政府和效仿华盛顿的州政府、私营企业及大学的其他表格和调查中。

Under the revisions, questions about race and ethnicity that previously were asked separately will be reformatted into a single question, which will give people the option to pick multiple categories at the same time. “Select all that apply,” the instructions read.
根据修订，之前分开的有关种族和民族的问题将被重新设置为一个问题，这将使人们可以同时选择多个类别。说明中写道：“选择所有适用选项。”

A Middle Eastern and North African category will also be created. Previously, the U.S. government counted such individuals as White, but now they have the option to identify themselves in the new, separate category.
新的修订还将创建中东和北非类别。此前，美国联邦政府将此类个人统计为白人，但现在他们可以选择将自己归入新的单独类别。

These revisions to the census began in 2014 under the Obama administration, but they were put aside during the Trump administration and then revived under the Biden administration.
这些对人口普查的修改始于2014年奥巴马政府时期，但在特朗普政府期间被搁置，然后在拜登政府又重新启动。

The reformatted race and ethnicity question will also include a “Hispanic or Latino” option for respondents to select. Studies show that a large proportion of Hispanic people are unclear on how to answer the race question when it is asked separately, since they tend to think about race and ethnicity as similar things and as a result often pick “some other race” or leave the question blank.
重新修订的种族和民族问题还将包括“西班牙语裔或拉丁裔”选项供受访者选择。研究表明，很大一部分西班牙语裔人士在面对单独询问种族的问题时不清楚如何回答，因为他们倾向于将种族和民族视为类似，因此经常选择“其他种族”或不回答。

Under the revisions, people will also have the option to go into greater detail about their background. For instance, people who say they are Asian can also detail, for instance, whether they’re Chinese or Vietnamese.
根据这些修订，人们还可以选择更详细地提供他们的背景。例如，自称是亚洲裔的人士还可以详细说明他们是中国裔还是越南裔。