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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Pamela Duncan and Matty Edwards

Huge effect of ethnicity on life chances revealed in official UK figures

Ethnicity has an influence on a range of areas including health, education, and employment
Ethnicity has an influence on a range of areas including health, education, and employment Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian

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.

Black people were three times as likely to be arrested as white people

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.

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.

White people are more likely to be in employment than people of other ethnic backgrounds

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.

People of white British and Indian backgrounds are more likely than other minorities to be homeowners

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.

Among poorer children, those of BME backgrounds have higher attainment levels than white pupils

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.

White 15-year-olds are more likely to smoke than their BME peers
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