Roma in an Expanding Europe-

Panel Session: Who are Roma? Roma and Statistics:

Balancing Privacy Concerns and Policy Evaluation

Official Statistics and Ethnicity:

The UK Experience

Robert Bumpstead

Office for National Statistics

UK Context

• Post-War immigration and growth of minority ethnic population

• Ethnicity question included national household

surveys 1970’s and Census from 1990’s

• Recent adoption of further range of identity

questions by major national surveys

• Underpinning this : recognition of real and

continuing inequalities of opportunity and outcome

Overview

Measuring Ethnicity

• What to measure

– Concepts, classifications and questions

• How to measure– Sampling, privacy and response

• Why measure

– Policy context, drivers and objectives

Defining ethnicity

• Definitional Problems– Complex: ascribing and classifying– Dynamic: changing terminology and interaction– Contested: imposing artificial boundaries

“Some have argued that it is impossible to devise a meaningful set of categories and have pointed to problems arising from existing definitions - that people may define themselves in different ways at different times and in different contexts and that some categories may mean different things to different people” (Gordon, 1996)

2001 Census ethnic question

What is your ethnic group? Choose ONE section from A to E, then

the appropriate box to indicate your cultural background.

A White

British Irish

Any other White background, please write in

B Mixed

White and Black Caribbean

White and Black African

White and Asian

Any other Mixed background, please write in

C Asian or Asian British

Indian Pakistani

Bangladeshi Any other Asian background, please write in

D Black or Black British

Caribbean African

Any other Black background, please write in

E Chinese or other ethnic group Chinese Any other, please write in

Underlying principles• Acceptability and Practicality

– Balance between user needs and respondent understanding. Inclusivity

and usability.

• Importance of Standardisation

– Across suppliers, data types and geographies

• Flexibility and comparability

– Adaptable questions to meet different needs– Range of output options that can be standardised in comparable

collapsible hierarchical framework• encourage reporting at most detailed level possible

Output categories

99 point classification possible Standard 16 point for England &

Wales– White British– White Irish– Any other White background– White and Black Caribbean– White and Black African– White and Asian– Any other Mixed background– Indian– Pakistani– Bangladeshi– Any other Asian background– Black Caribbean– Black African– Any other Black background– Chinese– Any other ethnic group

Can collapse to 5 point classification or variants in between

– White

– Mixed

– Asian

– Black

– Chinese & Other

Breakdown of the UK minority ethnic population, 2001

Mixed 14.6%

Asian or Asian BritishIndian 22.7%Pakistani 16.1%Bangladeshi 6.1%Other Asian 5.3%

Black or Black BritishBlack Caribbean 12.2%Black African 10.5%Other Black 2.1%

Chinese 5.3%

Other 5.0%

All minority ethnic population 100

Sampling Strategies

• Survey sampling minority ethnic groups

– Techniques to improve reliability of estimates• Oversampling and sample ‘Boosts’

• Focussed enumeration

– Utilise largest existing surveys

• Making Census more representative

– Focus resources in likely areas of low response

– Produce information and support in 30 languages

– Estimation and adjustment for non-response • Known as ‘One Number Census’

Countering Non-Response

• Incentivising and other strategies

• Partnership with representative groups

– Case Study: Introduction of new voluntary religion question

on Census 2001• Formal and informal consultation and collaboration with faith groups

• Regular contact and information on progress

• ‘Follow-through’ consultation and participation in analytic and

publication programme

Census Religion Question:Response Rate by Ethnic Group

United Kingdom 2001 Percentages

Source: Census 200170 75 80 85 90 95 100

White

Mixed

Indian

Pakistani/Bangladeshi

Black

Item Non-Response

• Question design and acceptability

– Question Testing• Qualitative and quantitative piloting and testing

– Inclusivity of answer options

– Context and order effects

• Question sensitivity

– Mode of completion• Self-completion and CASI (Computer Assisted Self-Completion)

Privacy and Confidentiality

• Confidentiality of information paramount

– Protected by law• Data Protection Act, Census Act (1920)

– Strict procedures for data access and release

– Ensure published data non-disclosive• aggregate results, disclosure thresholds

• small cell random adjustment, record swapping

• Can encourage participation

– Provided principles communicated intelligibly

Policy Drivers

• The Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 places a duty on all public bodies to:

“Promote equality and good relations between person of different races” whilst performing their functions. – Importantly this includes a duty to monitor impact of policies and

publish results

• Other legislation including EU directives (religion)

• Departmental targets (PSAs)

– Public Service Agreements contain specific objectives and measurable targets

• Example : Employment...

Why measure ethnicity

Unemployment rates by ethnic group

United Kingdom 2001/02 Percentages

Source: ALALFS, 2001/02

* working age population

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

White

Mixed

Indian

Pakistani

Bangladeshi

Other Asian

Black Caribbean

Black African

Other2

Men

Women

Policy Impact: Further Examples

• Outcome monitoring by ethnicity – e.g Health & patient satisfaction

– e.g Education & access to training

• Produce specific recommendations and outcomes

• Ethnic employment monitoring– e.g UK Prison Service

• Considers rank and progression as well as recruitment

• Cultural participation by ethnicity– e.g Participation in state funded arts & culture

• Funding implications for equality of access

Policy Impact: Local Examples

• Local profiling by ethnicity and religion has

many uses– e.g Schools and local education authorities

• Develop culturally relevant curriculum, activities etc.

– e.g Police Service

• Develop staff profiles more representative of local area

• Assist in informing training programs to promote

community relations

Summary and Contact Details

“It is vitally important that we do measure ethnicity and identity and

that we do so in a way that is sound, sensitive, relevant and useful.

Understanding people’s ethnicity is key to understanding many of

today’s social and economic trends”

(Len Cook, UK National Statistician 2003)

Contact details: Please E-mail

ethnicity&identity@ons.gov.uk