The Scottish Government

Ethnicity Classifications

Information on ethnic background is collected through a number of surveys, data collections and censuses. There is however work currently being taken forward by the Scottish Executive and and also by the Office for National Statistics and other members of the Government Statistics Service to develop classifications that are more acceptable and useful to those people who provide the information and those who use it.

The current position is that the Scottish Executive recommend Office for National Statistics recommends that the classifications used in the Census 2001 in England and Wales should be the standard interim classification used in National Statistics surveys.

To which of these groups do you consider you belong to?

In Scotland the Census 2001 classification was slightly different, with the inclusion of a 'Scottish' sub-category in the White category and the absence of a set of defined sub-categories under 'Mixed.' This classification is used in the Scottish Household survey.

The Labour Force survey and the British Household Survey currently use the new interim classification as recommended by the ONS. The Family Resources survey, the General Household survey, the Scottish Health survey and the Scottish Crime survey all use an earlier version of the harmonised ethnicity classification.

To which of these groups do you consider you belong?

White
Black - Caribbean
Black - African
Black - Other
Indian
Pakistani
Chinese
Any Other Ethnic Group

The wording of questions on ethnicity and disability varies between surveys, and not all surveys use fully harmonised questions yet. Therefore, when comparing results from different surveys it is important to note that even small differences in the way the question is asked can change the response.

See the National Statistics website for more details on harmonising survey questions