Harmonised Ethnic Group of the Adult, the Head of the Household or the Head of the Family (Benefit Unit) - high level (please calculate three-year averages

Dataset: Family Resources Survey (Adult, Individual, Family (Benefit Unit), Household, Household Food Security)

Field: Harmonised Ethnic Group of the Adult, the Head of the Household or the Head of the Family (Benefit Unit) - high level (please calculate three-year averages - click on i for the correct method)

Description

PLEASE ENSURE THAT ALL ETHNICITY ESTIMATES ARE PRESENTED AS THREE-YEAR AVERAGES - SEE QUALITY STATEMENT FOR MORE INFORMATION.

Harmonised ethnic group of the adult, the head of the household or the head of the family (benefit unit), as reported by the FRS respondents, where:

A respondent's ethnicity group is determined by that which they consider they belong.
All individuals who are aged 16 and over are classified as an adult, unless the individual is defined as a dependent child. All adults in the household are interviewed as part of the FRS.
A household consists of one person living alone or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address, who share cooking facilities and share a living room or sitting room or dining area. A household will consist of one or more benefit units.
Where we refer to the "head" of a household, this is the Household Reference Person (HRP). The HRP is the highest income householder:

In a single-adult household, the HRP is simply the sole householder (i.e. the person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented)
If there are two or more householders, the HRP is the householder with the highest personal income, taking all sources of income into account
If there are two or more householders who have the same income, the HRP is the elder

A benefit unit may consist of: a single adult, or a married or cohabiting couple, plus any dependent children. Same-sex partners (civil partners and cohabitees) have been included in the same benefit unit since January 2006.
If the household reference person does not belong to the benefit unit, then the head of benefit unit is simply the first person from that benefit unit, in the order they were named in the interview. If the household reference person does belong to the benefit unit, they are also the head of that benefit unit.

Harmonised Ethnic Group of the Head of the Household or the Head of the Family (Benefit Unit): Individuals in the household or the family have been classified according to the ethnic group of the household reference person (see Household reference person) which means that information about households of multiple ethnicities is lost.

The ethnicity questions used in the FRS adopt the UK harmonised standards for use in major Government social surveys; that is, they adopt the standard way of collecting information on the ways in which people describe their ethnic identity. The latest harmonised standards were published in August 2011 and cover the ethnic group question in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. They also cover harmonised data presentation for ethnic group outputs. The standards were updated in February 2013 detailing how Gypsy, Traveller and Irish Traveller should be recorded in the outputs, due to differences across the UK.

The FRS adopted these latest harmonised standards for England, Wales and Northern Ireland for the 2011/12 survey questionnaire, and the standards for Scotland were adopted for the 2012/13 survey questionnaire. The 2011/12 publication therefore adopted the latest harmonised output standards for ethnic groups for the UK. The most significant changes to previous publications are that the 'Chinese' category has moved from the 'Chinese or other ethnic group' section to the 'Asian/Asian British' section; and 'Irish Traveller' is included under 'Other ethnic group' for respondents in Northern Ireland and 'Gypsy or Irish Traveller' is included under the 'White' section for respondents in Great Britain, therefore UK figures have been allocated accordingly.

Classification

Applicable to: All adults and all individuals in a household or a family (benefit unit)

Not declared (added in 2020-21)
White
Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups
Asian
Black or African or Carribbean or Black British
Other ethnic group
Not available
Not applicable

Total number of categories: 8

Quality Statement

Ethnicity representation rates are now calculated from known declarations and exclude 'choose not to declare' and 'unknown'.

Smaller ethnic minority groups exhibit year-on-year variation which limits comparisons over time. For this reason, analysis by ethnicity is presented as three-year averages.

To calculate a three-year average, output estimates for at least three consecutive financial years:

For numbers - these can be outputted for all years in one table.
For percentages - please output one year at a time in a table (as outputting several years may result in incorrect percentage groupings).

Click on 'Financial Year', tick the required year and add to column. To remove the latest financial year, go to 'Financial Year', tick on the latest year and then select 'Remove' at the top. This should leave just the required financial year.

Alternatively, output several years as numbers in a table and manually calculate the percentages for each year separately in Excel. From this, three year averages can be calculated as below.

An example calculation is:

Year 1 estimate = 120,000

Year 2 estimate = 145,000

Year 3 estimate = 110,000

Three-year average estimate (Year 1 to Year 3) = (Year 1 estimate + Year 2 estimate + Year 3 estimate)/3 = (120,000 + 145,000 + 110,000)/3 = 125,000

Further information can be found in the FRS Background Note and Methodology here.