Ethnicity datasets

How many residents of each local authority in England and Wales belong to each of the nineteen ethnic groups recorded in Census 2021.

Published by

Office for National Statistics

Covers

England and Wales

Years

2021

Measures

Each measure is one kind of value you can request, using its id.

MeasureUnitCombining areas
Ethnic group: Bangladeshiethnicity-bangladeshiusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Chineseethnicity-chineseusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Indianethnicity-indianusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Pakistaniethnicity-pakistaniusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Other Asianethnicity-other-asianusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Africanethnicity-africanusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Caribbeanethnicity-caribbeanusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Other Blackethnicity-other-blackusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: White and Asianethnicity-white-and-asianusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: White and Black Africanethnicity-white-and-black-africanusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: White and Black Caribbeanethnicity-white-and-black-caribbeanusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Other Mixed or Multiple ethnic groupsethnicity-other-mixedusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or Britishethnicity-white-britishusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Irishethnicity-irishusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Gypsy or Irish Travellerethnicity-gypsy-or-irish-travellerusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Romaethnicity-romausual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Other Whiteethnicity-other-whiteusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Arabethnicity-arabusual residentsAdds up
Ethnic group: Any other ethnic groupethnicity-any-otherusual residentsAdds up

“Adds up” means you can total it over areas or convert it to other areas. See Measures and periods for why some can't be combined.

Areas and years

Request each of these with its geography and code year as geography and boundaryYear.

AreasCode yearPeriodsCoversRecords
Local authorities20232021England and Wales318

Things to know

  • All usual residents, as they identified themselves. The nineteen categories are exhaustive, so they sum to the whole resident population.
  • The census's five high-level groups are not served separately; each is the sum of its categories, which is exact for a count.
  • ONS perturbs census cell counts to protect confidentiality, so a sum of these categories can differ by a few residents from a population total published in another table.
  • The White category "English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British" is one census tick-box, not a statement about nationality.
  • The census reports on 2021 boundaries. The four authorities created in April 2023 are compiled by summing their predecessors, which is exact for a count, and the districts they replaced are not served, so no resident is counted twice. The partition is on April 2023 codes, which Barnsley and Sheffield changed in 2025.

Corrections and improvements

These reviewed changes apply to what the API serves for this data. The publisher's source files are not changed; when a code correction applies, the served record retains the publisher's code as sourceAreaCode.

ChangeWhat the API servesApplies when
Opt-in canonical measure-unit presentationOn the explicit canonical request, each numeric value and any publisher-supplied interval bound is multiplied by the measure's declared scale; the response names the resulting unit and calculation.GET /v1/data/{measure-id}?units=canonical
curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/corrections?measure=ethnicity-bangladeshi"
get/correctionsList reviewed corrections

Request it

Get the first page of ethnicity-bangladeshi for local authorities:

curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/data/ethnicity-bangladeshi?period=2021&geography=localAuthority&boundaryYear=2023&limit=5"

Read the measure's full definition, including every period it's published for:

curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/measures/ethnicity-bangladeshi"
get/data/{measure-id}Get observationsget/data/{measure-id}/seriesGet a time series

Source and licence

DatasetPublisherLicence
EthnicityOffice for National StatisticsOpen Government Licence v3.0

Using this data in something you publish? Get attribution text with measure=ethnicity-bangladeshi returns the credit line to include.

Downloads

Download complete publisher-observation files instead of paging through the API. Each file has a stable hash and covers one measure, period set and source geography. Any reviewed served code correction is documented and retains its publisher code on the affected record. The source and licence information above applies to these files too; preserve the attribution and note any cleaning or reformatting when you redistribute one.

MeasureCoverageRecordsDownload
Ethnic group: Africanethnicity-africanLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Any other ethnic groupethnicity-any-otherLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Arabethnicity-arabLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Bangladeshiethnicity-bangladeshiLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Caribbeanethnicity-caribbeanLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Chineseethnicity-chineseLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Gypsy or Irish Travellerethnicity-gypsy-or-irish-travellerLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Indianethnicity-indianLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Irishethnicity-irishLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Other Asianethnicity-other-asianLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Other Blackethnicity-other-blackLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Other Mixed or Multiple ethnic groupsethnicity-other-mixedLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Other Whiteethnicity-other-whiteLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Pakistaniethnicity-pakistaniLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: Romaethnicity-romaLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: White and Asianethnicity-white-and-asianLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: White and Black Africanethnicity-white-and-black-africanLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: White and Black Caribbeanethnicity-white-and-black-caribbeanLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON
Ethnic group: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or Britishethnicity-white-britishLocal authorities · 2021 · code year 2023318JSON