Other White (United Kingdom ethnicity category)

The term Other White is used in the UK census to describe people who self-identify as white persons who are not British nor Irish. The category does not comprise a single ethnic group but is instead a method of identification for white people who are not represented by other white census categories. This means that the Other White group contains a diverse collection of people with different countries of birth, religions and languages. Along with White British and White Irish, the category does not appear in Northern Ireland, where only one single "White" classification was presented to respondents.^[1]

Demographics

Place of birth of people identifying as "Other White", 2001 census

In the 2001 UK Census, the majority of people living in England and Wales ticking the 'Other White' ethnic group specified their ethnicity as European.^[2] Four out of five of the 'Other White' category (i.e. not British or Irish) were born overseas. A third were born in a Western European country other than the UK, and one in seven were born in an Eastern European country.^[2] The Other White group is largely of working age, with only one in ten aged over 65 and one in seven under 16 at the time of the 2001 census. This does vary according to the stated country of birth, with people born in the UK being disproportionately young. Polish and Italian respondents had a larger proportion of over 65s,^[2] which reflects the migration of Poles and Italians to Britain after the Second World War.^{[citation needed]} A wide number of religions are represented in the Other White group. In the census, the largest faith group, 63 per cent, identified themselves as Christian, with 16 per cent defining themselves as without religion, nine per cent as Muslims, and two per cent as Jewish.^[2]

See also

• Classification of ethnicity in the United Kingdom

References

1. ^ "Harmonised Concepts and Questions for Social Data Sources: Primary Standards – Ethnic Group". Office for National Statistics. April 2008. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/about/data/harmonisation/downloads/P3.pdf. Retrieved 21 August 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Gardener, David; Connolly, Helen (October 2005). "Who are the 'Other' ethnic groups?". Office for National Statistics. http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/nojournal/other_ethnicgroups.pdf. Retrieved 22 June 2008.