Ethnic group, national identity, religion and language consultation

Opening date: 01 December 2006
Closing date: 31 March 2007
Department: Office for National Statistics
Category: Population and Migration

The detailed consultation on user needs for ethnicity, national identity, language and religion information from the 2011 Census in England and Wales sought to:

• gain a better understanding of key data requirements

• gain an awareness of the range of views held on these topics, and

• identify the relative priorities for this information given the constraints of space on the census questionnaire.

The findings from the consultation are published in five reports, available to download. The Overall Summary Report conveys the main messages from all the consultation respondents. The supplementary reports summarise the key findings from the different stakeholders consulted.

Next steps

The responses to this consultation, along with those from other users and stakeholders, further informed question development. Question testing research with members of the public took place throughout 2007. ONS then made recommendations in early 2008 on the questions for the 2009 Rehearsal and 2011 Census. These were then agreed by Parliament in early 2010.

Please contact Census Customer Services if you have any queries or requests for further information.