Spotlight
Ethnic group, England and Wales: Census 2021
What's in the bulletin?
- In 2021, 81.7% (48.7 million) of usual residents in England and Wales identified their ethnic group within the high-level “White” category, a decrease from 86.0% (48.2 million) in the 2011 Census.
- As part of the “White” ethnic group, 74.4% (44.4 million) of the total population in England and Wales identified their ethnic group as “English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British”, this is a continued decrease from 80.5% (45.1 million) in 2011, and from 87.5% (45.5 million) who identified this way in 2001.
- The next most common high-level ethnic group was “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh” accounting for 9.3% (5.5 million) of the overall population, this ethnic group also saw the largest percentage point increase from 2011, up from 7.5% (4.2 million people).
National identity, England and Wales: Census 2021
What's in the bulletin?
- In 2021, 90.3% (53.8 million) of usual residents identified with at least one UK national identity (English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, British, and Cornish); this is a slight decrease from 92.0% (51.6 million) in 2011.
- People who identified with at least one UK and one non-UK identity accounted for 2.0% of the overall population (1.2 million people) in 2021; this is an increase from 0.9% (492,000) in 2011.
- Those selecting a non-UK identity only accounted for 9.7% of the overall population (5.8 million people), which is an increase from 8.0% of the population (4.5 million people) in 2011.
Change over time in admin-based ethnicity statistics, England: 2016 to 2020
Feasibility research on producing statistics on the population by ethnic group for England for 2016 to 2020 from administrative data, exploring change over time. This builds on work to improve the 2016 admin-based ethnicity statistics. These research outputs are not official statistics.
Datasets related to Ethnicity
-
Coronavirus and the social impacts on different ethnic groups in the UK
Estimates from the Understanding Society: COVID-19 Study, 2020, UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) and Wealth and Assets Survey (WAS) to explore the social impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on people from different ethnic groups in the UK.
Publications related to Ethnicity
Statistical bulletins
-
Ethnic group, England and Wales: Census 2021
The ethnic groups of usual residents and household ethnic composition in England and Wales, Census 2021 data.
-
National identity, England and Wales: Census 2021
The national identity of usual residents in England and Wales, Census 2021 data.
Articles
-
Admin-based ethnicity statistics for England, feasibility research
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not currently produce annual statistics by local authority on the population by ethnic group and the last official statistics were from the 2011 Census. This feasibility research combines ethnicity data from English School Census, Hospital Episode Statistics and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies to explore whether administrative data can be used to produce statistics on the population by ethnic group for 2016 at national and local authority level for England, by five-year age group and sex. These research outputs are not official statistics.
-
Producing admin-based ethnicity statistics for England: methods, data and quality
An overview of methods, data sources and data quality for the feasibility research on producing statistics on the population by ethnic group from Hospital Episode Statistics, English School Census and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies data.
-
Research report on population estimates by ethnic group and religion
Office for National Statistics research work on a simple method for producing population estimates by ethnic group and religion.
Methodology related to Ethnicity
Looking for local statistics?
A handy guide to let you know where to find local statistics.