FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4028
You asked
Please supply the following information:
What proportion of the UK's population are ethnic minorities?
What are the numbers of births amongst ethnic minorities in the UK?
We said
Thank you for your request.
Population:
The best official source for population estimates by ethnic group, for the whole of the UK, remains the 2011 Census. The Ethnic group [KS201UK] table has breakdown of the population of the whole of the UK as at census day, 27 March 2011, by 11 ethnic group categories (or classifications).
In December 2021, we published Population estimates by ethnic group and religion, England and Wales: 2019. This publication builds on previous research and user feedback and was published in response to the need for more timely population estimates by ethnic group and religion. These are experimental statistics of population by 18 ethnic groups and 8 religious groups by age and sex at the national and regional level for England and Wales only. As experimental statistics, they are official statistics but will be subject to further testing in terms of quality and ability to meet user needs.
The first wave of outputs from the 2021 Census will start to be released from early Summer 2022. Please see the link to the release plans here; this will be updated as and when further information is available.
Births:
We are responsible for the production of births data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the birth certificate at birth registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we do not hold the requested information for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain Scottish or Northern Irish data, NRS and NISRA can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Annual live births in England and Wales by ethnicity can be found in table 21 of our birth characteristics dataset. Table 21 contains live births and stillbirths by ethnicity between 2007 and 2020.
If you require further assistance with this enquiry, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.