The Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research

Race and Religion Statistics from the Census: What can you make of them?

December 8th 2003.

Organised by: Centre for Census and Survey Research, Local Authorities Research + Intelligence Association, and the Local Government Association.

Presentations and written accounts from the workshop are available as indicated, along with a summary of census and related data. A summary of the workshop follows.

Summary of the workshop:

New ways of looking at census data were recommended to a recent workshop on race and religion statistics. Although Government insists that ethnic group is collected on most administrative records, "there is a gap between the policy interest in discrimination and diverse needs, and the analytical work achieved with the data which already exist", according to Ludi Simpson who chaired the workshop. "In this workshop we went a long way to identify the relevant data in the census and what can best be done with them".

Several dozen participants signed up to a new Ethnic Data Users Group, proposed by Rob Lewis of the Greater London Authority to promote best practice in the collection and analysis of these data.

Opening the conference, Jagdish Gundara of the Commission for Racial Equality, stressed the national and European legislative framework which made it necessary to monitor the changing ethnic and religious composition of not only recruitment but service delivery.

Oldham Borough’s community cohesion policies use analysis of census data through quantifying inequalities in health and employment, and residential movement out from the city centre on the part of Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups. Bruce Penhale precisely described how these analyses were achieved and how they helped the Council’s policy implementation.

The 2001 Census explodes many myths, according to Danny Dorling from Sheffield University. Who’s married with children (Asian groups, particularly in White heartlands), who’s not qualified (White Britons, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis), how are the geographies of ethnic groups changing (dispersal of all groups), are some of the new results from standard census tables. They can each be investigated by local authorities for their own areas.

Baljit Bains of the Greater London Authority highlighted the changing categories of ethnic group changed between the 1991 and 2001 Census. In particular there is a choice to monitor and project the new Mixed group, or to distribute it within other categories, which in the GLA would be decided through consultation with users. Baljit stressed that all analysis should highlight the limitations imposed by the particular questions that had been asked. They did not reveal the complexity of an individual’s sense of identity.

Housing analysis focuses on race equality impact assessments, race equality policy implementation, and housing needs’ studies, according to Richard Tomlins of de Montford University, who described the potential of the census in each case.

Methods of measuring discrimination in recruitment were described by Dave Drew and Stephen Munn from the Department for Work and Pensions. They explained results from discrimination testing by similar applicants from different backgrounds, and from statistical modelling of employment levels.

The workshop was jointly sponsored by the Local Authorities Research and Intelligence Association, Manchester University’s Centre for Census and Survey Research, and the Local Government Association. Further census workshops will be organised during 2004 – visit www.laria.gov.uk or contact Graham smith, LARIA, 01642-316-576, for the latest information.

University of Manchester CCSR