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Highest level of qualification and industry (current)

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Last updated:
— See version history
Important information:

As Census 2021 was during a unique period of rapid change, take care when using Labour Market data for planning purposes.

Read more about this quality notice.

Important information:

There are quality considerations about higher education qualifications, including those at Level 4+, responses from older people and international migrants, and comparability with 2011 Census data.

Read more about this quality notice.

Summary

This dataset provides 2021 Census estimates that classify all usual residents in England and Wales by highest level of qualification and industry (current). 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.

Regions

Data for the nine regions in England, and Wales as a whole.

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

Highest level of qualification

The highest level of qualification is derived from the question asking people to indicate all qualifications held, or their nearest equivalent.

This may include foreign qualifications where they were matched to the closest UK equivalent.

Industry (current)

Classifies people aged 16 years and over who were in employment between 15 March and 21 March 2021 by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code that represents their current industry or business.

The SIC code is assigned based on the information provided about a firm or organisation’s main activity.

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Important information:
All 10 areas available

Variables

Population type
All usual residents
Area type
Regions
Coverage
England and Wales
Highest level of qualification
7 Categories
  • No qualifications
  • Level 1 and entry level qualifications: 1 to 4 GCSEs grade A* to C, Any GCSEs at other grades, O levels or CSEs (any grades), 1 AS level, NVQ level 1, Foundation GNVQ, Basic or Essential Skills
  • Level 2 qualifications: 5 or more GCSEs (A* to C or 9 to 4), O levels (passes), CSEs (grade 1), School Certification, 1 A level, 2 to 3 AS levels, VCEs, Intermediate or Higher Diploma, Welsh Baccalaureate Intermediate Diploma, NVQ level 2, Intermediate GNVQ, City and Guilds Craft, BTEC First or General Diploma, RSA Diploma
  • Level 3 qualifications: 2 or more A levels or VCEs, 4 or more AS levels, Higher School Certificate, Progression or Advanced Diploma, Welsh Baccalaureate Advance Diploma, NVQ level 3; Advanced GNVQ, City and Guilds Advanced Craft, ONC, OND, BTEC National, RSA Advanced Diploma
  • Level 4 qualifications or above: degree (BA, BSc), higher degree (MA, PhD, PGCE), NVQ level 4 to 5, HNC, HND, RSA Higher Diploma, BTEC Higher level, professional qualifications (for example, teaching, nursing, accountancy)
  • Other: apprenticeships, vocational or work-related qualifications, other qualifications achieved in England or Wales, qualifications achieved outside England or Wales (equivalent not stated or unknown)
  • Does not apply
Industry (current)
19 Categories
  • A Agriculture, forestry and fishing
  • B Mining and quarrying
  • C Manufacturing
  • H Transport and storage
  • I Accommodation and food service activities
  • J Information and communication
  • Q Human health and social work activities
  • R, S, T, U Other
  • Does not apply
Show all 19 categories
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Contact us

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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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Version history

Release date Reason for update
Version superseded
Version superseded
Original release
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Related content

Census 2021 dictionary
Definitions, variables and classifications to help when using Census 2021 data.

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Dataset link

Bookmark or copy the link to return to this dataset

ons.gov.uk/datasets/create/filter-outputs/954ccde8-181a-4551-95b8-86af59ec766f

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