In addition, categories such as Black African, European and Other Ethnic Group cover diverse populations and there may be more differences in outcome measures within the category than between that category and others. Other categories that may be relevant include passports held, languages spoken and national identity.
Table 3 shows the change in makeup of the switzerland rcs data population of England by ethnicity between 2011 and 2021. the ethnic groups is likely to reflect a combination of the younger population having children and migration. The growth in the other category is likely to reflect a difficulty some people experience when trying to find a category that reflects their identity.
There are also detailed tables covering 288 ethnic categories available at MSOA level. An initial analysis suggests that the combination of the high-level category (white, Asian, black, mixed and other) with self-identification does reflect some confusion. For example, Iranians have identified as Asian, mixed, other and white.