The federal government standardized the category in 1977 through a directive from the Office of Management and Budget. Before that, Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans and Cuban Americans were counted inconsistently, which made discrimination hard to measure. Advocates pushed for a shared category to secure data and political recognition, and the 1980 census asked every household about Hispanic origin.
Hispanic and Latino overlap but differ. Hispanic is based on language and includes Spain. Latino is based on geography and includes Brazil, where Portuguese is spoken. Both include people who are white, Black, Indigenous, Asian or mixed. In the 2020 census, 62.1 million people, about 18.7% of the population, identified as Hispanic or Latino.
In 2024, OMB revised its standards to ask about race and Hispanic origin in a single question. The change responds to evidence that many Hispanic respondents did not see themselves in the race options and chose "some other race." Many people prefer national-origin terms such as Mexican, Dominican or Salvadoran American.