Data on race have been collected in South African censuses for a century. We examine the role played by the census in solidifying race as a social statistic and show that, in contrast to the majority of situations, operational and legislative factors rendered the census largely unimportant as a vehicle for doing this. Since 1994, race has been entirely self-reported and not subject to state reinterpretation. We examine the implications of this for future data collection exercises and caution against reifying race as a predictor of social outcomes in post-apartheid South Africa, and argue for its gradual phasing out.