Until 2000, the GSS measured race mostly by interviewer observation (variable RACE), using categories of white, black, and other. If in doubt about how to code a respondent’s race, interviewers asked the respondent “what race do you consider yourself?” Beginning in 2002, the GSS measured race following the procedures used in the decennial Census, asking all respondents for a racial self-identification and recording up to three mentions. These data are in variables RACECEN1, RACECEN2, and RACECEN3 (The same questions also were asked as part of the “Multi-Ethnic United States” topical module administered to one of the two samples in the 2000 GSS). For 2002 and later GSSs, a value of RACE has been imputed based on RACCEN1 and other information.
