WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AP) – The federal government is taking preliminary steps toward revising racial and ethnic classifications that have not been changed in a quarter century following calls for more accurate categories for how people identify themselves in federal data gathering.

The revisions could open the door to changes long desired by advocates on census and survey forms. Among them are a new category for people of Middle Eastern and North African descent who currently are classified as white and efforts to make categories less confusing for Hispanic participants.

The chief statistician of the US said in a blog post Wednesday that her office was initiating a formal review of the race and ethnicity classifications maintained by the Office of Management and Budget which were first outlined in 1977 and have not been revised since then.

The purpose of any changes to the standards will be to better reflect the diversity of the US, said Karin Orvis, the chief statistician, who was named to the position by the Biden Administration earlier this year.

The review will wrap up by summer 2024 after getting input from government experts across agencies and public feedback, according to the chief statistician. That date would be months before a presidential election that could lead to a stop to any revisions if there’s a change in administrations. Momentum for changing the classifications grew in the years leading up to the 2020 census, but it was halted after then-President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

“I understand the importance of moving quickly and with purpose,” Orvis said. “It is also important that we get this right.”

Besides helping to provide a portrait of the demographic makeup of the US, the categories are used to enforce civil rights, voting rights and employment discrimination laws. Under current classifications, race and Hispanic origin are separate categories on census forms and surveys.

Some advocates have been pushing for combining the race and Hispanic origin questions, saying the way race is categorised often confuses Hispanic respondents who are not sure how to answer. Tests by the Census Bureau in the 2010 census showed that combining the questions yielded higher response rates.

The need to change the current standards can be seen in 2020 census results in which the “some other race” category surpassed African Americans as the nation’s second-largest racial group. The “some other race” category was made up overwhelmingly of Latinos, said Arturo Vargas, executive director of NALEO Educational Fund.