Ethnic group 2021 Census data for England and Wales were published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 29^th November 2022. On 16^th January the GEDI team published the first peer-reviewed analysis of the data!

Published in The Geographical Journal, our analysis spans 30 years and four Census time points (1991, 2001, 2011 and 2021), and explores changes in ethnic diversity, mixing and segregation at the national level (England and Wales), in districts, and across neighbourhoods.

What did we find?

• The population of England and Wales is becoming increasingly mixed and diverse, continuing a trend of the past three decades. Residential segregation of all ethnic groups—White and minority—is declining. 
• At the local level, many more neighbourhoods are ethnically diverse, and diversity has been spreading out to new locales. 
• We challenge the ‘minority-majority’ binary that hinges on White/White British presence or absence in a place, centring instead on its mixture of ethnic groups. In doing so, we find ethnic diversity where the ethnic majority is less populous.

Read more about the methodology and findings here.