ABSTRACT
Ethnicity counts—that is to say, it is important. But the counts of ethnic groups are fundamentally flawed. For a statistical bureau the classification of ethnic/racial groups is both important and, given the conditions set by laws and circumstances, impossible. In Philip Gleason's opinion, identity has also been worn down to an almost meaningless remnant. The school of what have been termed primordialists, with Harold R. Isaacs as a significant spokesman, hold that the collective identity that we call ethnicity is a given in human relations. Persons with a particular attribute that marks them as units in a statistical aggregate have more than one identity, so that the presumed unity is only partial. Of all the caveats to users of ethnic statistics, the most important is the generalization that a statistical bureau's task is not simply to count what exists in the real world.
