3. Patterns of inter-ethnic relationships

In 2011, the total household population in England and Wales aged 16 and over was 44.5 million people; of these, 25.7 million people (58%) were in a relationship living as part of a couple, who were married, in a civil partnership or cohabiting1.

In 2011, of those living as part of a couple almost 1 in 10 (9%, 2.3 million people) were in an inter-ethnic relationship and 9 in 10 (91%, 23.4 million people) were in a relationship with someone from the same ethnic group.

In 2011, people from the Mixed/Multiple groups were the most likely to be in an inter-ethnic relationship (over 8 in 10 or 195,000 people). The groups most likely to contain people in an inter-ethnic relationship were White and Black Caribbean (88%), followed by White and Asian (87%), Other Mixed (84%) and White and Black African (79%). People from the Mixed/Multiple groups are themselves likely to be the result of inter-ethnic relationships2 that have emerged in the last 60 years (from post war immigration patterns). These groups have a much younger age profile than some of the other ethnic groups and 80% of the people in this group were born in the UK.

Outside the Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups there were high rates of inter-ethnic relationships with White Irish and Other Black3. Around 7 in 10 White Irish were in inter-ethnic relationships and around 6 in 10 Other Black. Around half of Gypsy or Irish Travellers were in a relationship with someone outside of their ethnic group.

White British couples were the least likely to be in an inter-ethnic relationship with around 1 in 25 (4%). This in part reflects that the White British group are the largest group (81% of the overall population) and as such have a greater opportunity to be in a relationship with someone who is also White British.

The next least likely were Bangladeshi (7%), Pakistani (9%) and Indian (12%). Cultural, racial and religious differences are likely to play a part in the low rate of people from South Asian backgrounds in inter-ethnic relationships.

Inter-ethnic relationships in England and Wales rose by two percentage points between 2001 and 2011 (7% in 2001 to 9% in 2011). The pattern of people in inter-ethnic relationships across the ethnic groups for 2001 and 2011 was broadly similar. The group that saw the largest change between 2001 and 2011 was Other White where the proportion of people in inter-ethnic relationships decreased by 15 percentage points (from 54% to 39%).

The Other White group is a varied group and it saw the largest growth overall of all ethnic groups between 2001 and 2011 (an increase of 1.1 million, 1.8 percentage points). It contains more recent migrants who have had less time to establish mixed relationships. For example 84% of this group were born outside of the UK and the group included people whose country of birth was Poland, the second largest group of non-UK born residents (which saw an increase of 0.5 million)4.

Note that caution is required when comparing ethnic group categories over time. This is because of changes to the wording of the question and the addition of new tick-boxes (further details can be found in background notes or in the questionnaire comparability report.

Table 1: Overall number and percentage of people (over the age of 16) living as a couple who were in inter-ethnic relationships by ethnic group England and Wales, 2001 and 2011 2001 2011 Thousands Percentage Thousands Percentage England and Wales 1,709 7 2,327 9 White British 744 3 933 4 Irish 220 65 189 71 Gypsy or Irish Traveller1,2 - - 8 50 Other White 355 54 465 39 Mixed/multiple White and Black Caribbean 29 91 58 88 White and Black African 13 77 23 79 White and Asian 36 85 59 87 Other Mixed 29 81 55 84 Asian/Asian British Indian 50 10 82 12 Pakistani 24 9 39 9 Bangladeshi 7 7 12 7 Chinese3 22 25 45 31 Other Asian3 34 33 113 32 Black/African/Caribbean/Black British African 29 23 59 22 Caribbean 58 34 73 43 Other Black 12 71 30 62 Other ethnic group Arab1 - - 28 35 Any other ethnic group3 47 50 55 42 Source: Census 2011, Office for National Statistics Notes: 1. No comparable data exists for these groups as they these were new tick boxes introduced for the 2011 Census. 2. The majority of write-in responses for Gypsies and Travellers in 2001 were written under Other White and it is likely that a few may have selected white British or White Irish - though impact is likely to be low as numbers in total for 2001 were around 4,000. 3. Comparability issues exist for these groups between 2001 and 2011.The repositioning of Chinese tick box from Other category to Asian/Asian British category, and the introduction of the Arab category means there is a loss of comparability between 2001 and 2011 data for Chinese and other ethnic group. Download this table Table 1: Overall number and percentage of people (over the age of 16) living as a couple who were in inter-ethnic relationships by ethnic group .xls

Notes for patterns of inter-ethnic relationships