The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has apologised for using the incorrect term to describe the Arab ethnicity on 2022 census forms, which are currently being distributed across the State.
Under the ethnicity question on the new form respondents are given the option to choose ‘Arabic’ as their ethnicity. However, Arabic refers to the language spoken across many countries in the Middle East and other parts of the world. The term Arab relates to the ethnicity of a person.
The census question asks respondents to state their ethnic group or background under four main headings – white, black or black Irish, Asian or Asian Irish and other, including mixed group/background. A subsection under the final ‘other’ option gives respondents the option to choose ‘Arabic’ as their ethnicity.
The CSO said on Friday: “we sincerely regret that this error was not identified until after the forms had been printed, despite an extensive testing process.
“The CSO makes every effort to ensure the accuracy and appropriateness of every question and option in the census form,” it said in a statement sent to The Irish Times. “We sincerely regret that an error in the options provided to the question on ethnicity was not identified until after all census forms had been printed.
“We recognise that ‘Arab’ should have been included as an option and that the use of the word ‘Arabic’ is inaccurate.
“The CSO would like to apologise to those impacted by this error. This will be resolved for future censuses and in reporting the results of Census 2022.”
The 2022 census, which was due to take place last year but was put on hold because of Covid, will take place on Sunday, April 3rd, and was launched earlier this week. Some 5,100 census enumerators have started the process of delivering more than two million forms to every household in the country.
The forms must be completed on census night and will be collected by an enumerator before May 6th, 2022.
Eight questions covering issues such as internet access, smoking, working from home, childcare and volunteering have been added to this year’s form. An optional “time capsule” element will also be included, with participants being asked to leave a message which will be stored for 100 years before being released to the public.
