Country of birth by ethnic group

Summary

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents in England and Wales by country of birth and by ethnic group. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Variable and dataset information

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower tier local authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:

  • country - for example, Wales
  • region - for example, London
  • local authority - for example, Cornwall
  • health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
  • statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Country of birth

The country in which a person was born.

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

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

Ethnic group

The ethnic group that the person completing the census feels they belong to. This could be based on their culture, family background, identity or physical appearance.

Respondents could choose one out of 19 tick-box response categories, including write-in response options.

Variables

Population type
All usual residents
Area type
Lower tier local authorities
Coverage
England and Wales
Country of birth
12 Categories
  • Europe: United Kingdom
  • Europe: EU countries: European Union EU14
  • Europe: EU countries: European Union EU8
  • Europe: EU countries: European Union EU2
  • Europe: EU countries: All other EU countries
  • Europe: Non-EU countries: All other non-EU countries
  • Africa
  • Middle East and Asia
  • The Americas and the Caribbean
  • Antarctica and Oceania (including Australasia) and Other
  • British Overseas
  • Does not apply
Show fewer categories
Ethnic group
8 Categories
  • Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh
  • Black, Black British, Black Welsh, Caribbean or African
  • Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups
  • White: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British
  • White: Irish
  • White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller, Roma or Other White
  • Other ethnic group
  • Does not apply

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Protecting personal data

Sometimes we need to make changes to data if it is possible to identify individuals. This is known as statistical disclosure control.

In Census 2021, we:

  • swapped records (targeted record swapping), for example, if a household was likely to be identified in datasets because it has unusual characteristics, we swapped the record with a similar one from a nearby small area (very unusual households could be swapped with one in a nearby local authority)
  • added small changes to some counts (cell key perturbation), for example, we might change a count of four to a three or a five – this might make small differences between tables depending on how the data are broken down when we applied perturbation

Read more in Section 5 of our article Design for Census 2021.

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