PIP: This issue of California Counts provides a context for discussion on multiracial or ethnic population in California with particular emphasis on the increasing number of multiracial or ethnic births in the state. Data was derived from vital statistics birth records for the period 1982-97. In 1977, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) established minimum categories for the collection, record keeping and presentation of data by race and ethnicity. These categories were used by the Census Bureau to identify the respondents' race and ethnicity. But these categories proved to be incompetent for they no longer reflected the increasing diversity of the nation. So by 1997, after the comprehensive review, the OMB announced a revision of the federal guidelines for data collection by race and ethnicity. The guidelines will help respondents in selecting one or more racial categories. After the revision, the guidelines helped in providing a clear picture of the multiracial status; it showed an increase in multiracial or ethnic births from 12% in 1982 to 14% in 1997, which they were more common among native-born mothers than among foreign-born mothers. In 1997, approximately 20% of native-born mothers, but only 7% of foreign-born mothers gave birth to children of mixed race or ethnicity. This report suggests this issue must be confronted, that is, how to ensure the civil rights of the population that has outgrown the monoracial categories upon which the civil rights laws have been interpreted.