The American public was "misled" by census results in 2020 that said the multiracial population in the United States was rapidly growing, argue two Princeton University sociologists.

The census revealed a 276% surge in the nation's multiracial population between 2010 and 2020, but that was caused by how the Census Bureau classified individuals and by the use of a computerized algorithm that counted the results incorrectly, the sociologists, Paul Starr and Christina Pao, wrote in a recent paper, reports Newsweek.

The dramatic jump that was reported was an illusion, not a demographic shift, Starr and Pao said.

In 2020, the Census Bureau allowed respondents for the first time to write in their families' origins on census forms, which influenced how racial and ethnic identities were categorized.

An algorithm that was used that year compounded the problem, Starr and Pao wrote.

Their analysis showed that people who marked themselves on the census as being Black or white but also indicated origins from Latin America were automatically reclassified as being multiracial even if they had only identified with one race.

In addition, people who identified as being white but said they had African origins were classified as being multiracial, they wrote.

The census indicated that the percentage of Americans classified as being from two or more races grew from 2.9% in 2010 to 10.2% in 2020. The increase was highest among Hispanic people.

Meanwhile, the share of people identifying themselves as being white alone dropped from 72.4% to 61.6%.

The official census count of multiracial people can influence decisions on how political districts are redrawn, how labor and health statistics are compiled, and how civil rights issues are enforced.

Census Bureau officials, when unveiling the 2020 data in mid-2021, said the updated classification method marked a significant improvement in reflecting racial and ethnic identity but also admitted the growth was likely a result of changing the methods that were used.

Starr, however, said that the census "produced a sudden jump in the multiracial count and a precipitous decline in the count of the white population, contributing to an unwarranted panic among white conservatives about demographic change."

Susan Graham, an advocate for multiracial representation in official statistics, said that the census was "possibly" subjected to a "fictitious multiracial boom."

"As always, answers only get more confusing when the federal government goes back and tries, one more time, to get it right," Graham said.

Census Bureau officials said that the federal standards have been changed and now require race and ethnicity to be asked in a combined question.

"The updated federal standards are designed to treat all groups co-equally, to encourage respondents to identify their races and/or ethnicities, and to ensure that the resulting data fully represent what respondents report," the officials said.

Meanwhile, a new Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) category is being introduced, which could decrease further the number of respondents identifying as white.

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