FOI reference: FOI-2024-1965

You asked

I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from multiple census results. Please may you provide me with:

  • Religion result statistics for the 2001 census
  • Religion result statistics for the 2011 census 
  • Number of Indian and White British relationships for the 2001 census 
  • Number of Indian and White British relationships for the 2021 census 
  • Results for number of inter-ethnic relationships of the Indian population from the 2021 census

We said

Thank you for your freedom of information request. 

The broad picture of population change can be followed from census to census, but as each census has evolved to reflect and keep up with changes in society, direct comparison is not always possible. Changes in the questions asked and differences in how the outputs are released mean that each census primarily provides a 'cross sectional' picture of the country at the time. 

The associated download provides an excel spreadsheet with four separate datasets. Tab 1 details religion from the 2001 Census. Tab 2 details religion from 2011 Census. The other two tabs show ethnic group (including Indian and White British) relationships for the 2001 census – separated by married and co-habiting. These (ethnic group tables) were created as commissioned tables. Census commissioned tables (ad hoc) are produced in response to user requests and contain combinations of data that are not available in standard publications. 

In November 2022 we released the ethnic group topic summary, in section 5 you can find information on ethnic group composition within households. Accompanying this release was a dataset relating to multiple ethnic groups in households. This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify households in England and Wales by the diversity in ethnic group of household members in different relationships. These relationships include "ethnic groups differ within partnerships".  

Equivalent relationship tables for the Census 2021 data would need to be created as a bespoke output. Such services as subject to disclosure controls, resources, legal frameworks, and an agreement of costs. 

Please see the commissioned table service page to download a copy of the order form which details the scale of charges for this service.  

On receipt of your completed order form, you will be added to the waiting list. Please note that any table commissioned will have to pass our strict statistical disclosure control process to ensure there is no risk of disclosure of personal information in the table. More information on this process is available here: Design for Census 2021 - Office for National Statistics ons.gov.uk 

If you have any queries about this data, Census.customerservices@ons.gov.uk can advise.