title: Estimating the stability of census-based racial/ethnic classifications: the case of Brazil.
abstract: This study presents a method of estimating the degree to which people change their racial/ethnic identity from one census enumeration to another. The technique is applied to the classification of skin colour in Brazil (white, black, brown, yellow). For the period 1950-80, the findings show a deficit of 38 per cent in the black category and a gain of 34 per cent in the brown category, suggesting that a large proportion of individuals who declared themselves black in 1950 reclassified themselves as brown in 1980. Estimates for 1980-90, adjusted for the effects of international migration, reveal a similar pattern, although the magnitude of colour reclassification may have declined somewhat during the 1980s. Procedures to determine the stability of racial/ethnic identity produce data useful to recent policy initiatives that rely on demographic censuses to measure changes in the status of minority groups in less developed countries.
authors.affiliation: Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
authors.forename: José Alberto Magno
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: de Carvalho
authors.forename: Charles H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: Flávia Cristina Drumond
authors.initials: FC
authors.lastname: Andrade
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D019352:Censuses; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000145:classification*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D011157:Population Dynamics; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000145:classification*; D012880:Skin Pigmentation