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Census

Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply. Letter from Jil Matheson, National Statistician, to Lord Laird, dated December 2009. As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking (a) what answers are anticipated to the 2011 Census to the proposed ethnic group questions "any other Black/African/Caribbean background" and "any other ethnic group"; (b) what "other ethnic group" other than Arabic was considered; and (c) what percentage of respondents to the 2007 census test described themselves as "Gypsy or Irish traveller". (HL699) (a) We would expect a range of different written responses for those ticking the "Any other Black/African/Caribbean background" box and the "Any other ethnic group" box in the 2011 Census question on ethnic group. In 2001, for more than eight in 10 (84 per cent) of those in the "Other Black" group, an ethnic group description was specified in the text box on the census form. The majority (63 per cent) specified a "Black British" ethnic identity. A further 13 per cent were coded to a "Black Mixed" group, indicating mixed ethnicity where both or all ethnicities described are from different black groups. The main write-in descriptions of the "Other Ethnic group" were Filipino (23 per cent), Japanese (21 per cent), Vietnamese (11 per cent), Arab (11 per cent), Middle Eastern (6 per cent), and North African (4 per cent) although we except most east Asian descriptors to be written in under the "Other Asian" space in 2011 and Arab respondents to use the "Arab" tick-box. More information about the 2001 "other" groups can be found in our article Who are the "Other" ethnic groups? which can be downloaded from http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articies/nojournal/other_ethnicgroups.pdf. (b) With space on the census questionnaire limited to only two new tick boxes, and many more demands for tick-boxes than could be accommodated, ONS developed a set of principles by which requirements for new tick box categories for ethnic groups could be assessed and prioritised. These covered: strength of need for information; lack of alternative sources of information; clarity and quality of the information collected and acceptability to respondents; and comparability with the 2001 Census data. Particular groups which were identified during the consultation with users and also considered for individual tick boxes were: African Cornish East African Asian Eastern European Greek/Greek Cypriot Iranian Jewish Kashmiri Kurdish Latin American Mixed: Black and Asian Mixed: White and Chinese Nepalese Non-European White Sikh Sri Lankan Turkish/Turkish Cypriot Vietnamese Detailed information about the prioritisation process and the ethnic groups which were considered together with the scores obtained are available in Annex A of the Information Paper Deciding which tick-boxes to add to the ethnic group question in the 2011 England and Wales Census. http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/question-and-content-recommendations-for-2011/index.html. (c) Less than 1 per cent of respondents to the 2007 test which was carried out in approximately 100,000 households from within the five local authority areas of Bath and North East Somerset, Camden, Carmarthenshire, Liverpool and Stoke-on-Trent recorded themselves as "Gypsy or Irish Traveller".

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

699; 715 c230-1WA

Session

2009-10

Subjects

Census Ethnic groups Travellers

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk