Ethnicity is at the centre of major political debates in Britain. From diverse perspectives, politicians and campaigners have highlighted differences between ethnic groups in where they live, the skills and education they are provided with, the jobs they have and the healthcare they receive. The measurement of these ethnic group differences has become increasingly complex as identities evolve, and more people mix within families, neighbourhoods and workplaces. Comparisons made 50 years ago between immigrants from the British New Commonwealth as a whole and the average experience of UK residents are now made between family origins of many more world regions, between immigrants and their children and grandchildren born and educated in the UK. The context of social policies has moved from race relations to also encompass the management of immigration and the integration of immigrants, religious discrimination and the relationships between ethnic and religious claims and state services, as well as the state's response to terrorist threats.

In this book we show what the largest government statistical enquiry has to say about the dynamics of ethnic identity and inequality in contemporary Britain. The chapters draw on data from the decennial censuses of population in England, Wales and Scotland, which have asked a question on ethnic group since 1991. The first section shows how ethnic groups have grown, the places they are most diverse, how they perceive their national identity, and how ethnic identity changes over time. The second section looks at whether minority ethnic groups are residentially segregated and continue to face disadvantages in health, housing, employment, education and neighbourhoods.

This chapter introduces the concept of ethnicity, its measurement in the UK context, and the identities and inequalities that these data and other collected statistics have been able to identify. The chapter ends with a short description of the book and a section of reference material that is used throughout the book.

What is ethnicity?

Measuring ethnicity is fraught with difficulty because researchers try to reduce a subjective and dynamic concept to a categorisation that is meaningful to individuals and, at the same time, manageable in data analysis. Bulmer (2010) suggests an ethnic group is a collectivity within a large population with shared identity defined by kinship, religion, language, shared territory, nationality or physical appearance. The importance of these dimensions in what shapes ethnic identity will vary from person to person.