This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Ethnic minorities face huge disparities in life experiences and outcomes compared with their white British counterparts, according to a collection of official government statistics being launched on Tuesday.



The ethnicity facts and figures website, a government audit of public services, shows the influence of ethnicity on a range of areas covering health, education, employment and the criminal justice system among 130 topics.

Black people were more than three times as likely to be arrested as their white peers.

In 2015-16 there were 44 arrests per 1,000 population among black people compared with 14 arrests per 1,000 population among white people. People of Asian origin had a slightly higher arrest rate than those from white backgrounds.

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Less than two-thirds of people from ethnic minorities are in work, compared with three-quarters of white people. While working age people with an Indian background are nearly as likely to have a job as white people, those of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin are the least likely to be in employment.

People from Indian backgrounds and white British people are more likely to own their own home than other ethnic groups.

More than two-thirds of people from these groups are homeowners, compared with fewer than half of people from Black Caribbean, Bangladeshi and mixed backgrounds.

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Among poorer children, who are eligible for free school meals, those from minority backgrounds have higher attainment levels for reading, writing and maths than white pupils.

By age 11, about half of those of Bangladeshi and Indian origin reached expected academic standards, compared with fewer than a third of white British children, who fared the worst of any group.



Children of Chinese backgrounds have been excluded from Guardian analysis because so few of them get free school meals.

There were surprising differences between ethnicities when it came to taking up smoking: white 15-year-olds are much more likely to smoke than their BME counterparts, with black teenagers least likely to smoke at this age.

