Country of birth variable: Census 2021

Mnemonic: country_of_birth
Applicability: Person
Type: Standard variable

Definition

The country in which a person was born.

For people not born in one of the four countries of the UK or the Republic of Ireland, there was an option to select "elsewhere".

People who selected "elsewhere" were asked to write in the current name for their country of birth.

Classification

Total number of categories: 60

*Students and schoolchildren living away during term-time.

View all country of birth classifications.

Question asked

What is your country of birth?

• England
• Wales
• Scotland
• Northern Ireland
• Republic of Ireland
• Elsewhere, write in current name of the country

The question and options that people could choose from were the same in Census 2021 and the 2011 Census.

Background

Read about how we developed and tested the questions for Census 2021.

Why we ask the question

The answer helps local and central government understand more about the needs of the people living in different areas. This information will help local authorities plan services, make policies and set aside resources for communities. It will allow them to make predictions about the future needs of people living in their area.

We also use this information with answers about people's ethnic group and religion to tell us more about the cultural backgrounds of the people in different areas.

A question about where people were born has been asked since 1841.

Comparability with the 2011 Census

Broadly comparable

We have changed some categories to make them more consistent with country classifications used in other national statistics.

What does broadly comparable mean?

A variable that is broadly comparable means that it can be generally compared with the same variable used in the 2011 Census. However, changes may have been made to the question or options that people could choose from or how write-in answers are classified.

England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland comparisons

Highly comparable

What does highly comparable mean?

A variable that is highly comparable means that it can be directly compared with the variable from Scotland and Northern Ireland. The questions and options that people could choose from may be slightly different, for example the order of the options may be swapped around, but the data collected is the same.

Find out more about variables produced for Census 2021 in Northern Ireland and Census 2022 in Scotland.

Census 2021 data that uses this variable

We use variables from Census 2021 data to show findings in different ways.

You can:

• get the country of birth dataset
• view country of birth data on a map
• read about how an area has changed in 10 years
• view country of birth data for an area on Nomis (an Office for National Statistics service)

Alternatively, you can also create a custom dataset.

Other datasets that use this variable

• Country of birth (detailed)
• Economic activity status by country of birth
• Highest level of qualification by country of birth
• Passports held by country of birth
• Welsh language skills by country of birth
• Country of birth by ethnic group
• Country of birth by age
• Number of non-UK born short-term residents by country of birth
• Approximated social grade by country of birth
• Out of term-time population by country of birth (detailed)
• Workday population by country of birth (detailed)
• Workplace population by country of birth (detailed)