Main heading

Introduction | Legislation | Facts and Figures

Ethnicity

An ethnic group is a community of people who share cultural and/or physical characteristics these can include cultural traditions, ancestry, national origin, history, religion, language, political systems, myths, behaviours, or physical features.

It was seen from the 2001 Census that 4.6 million people (7.9%) of the British population are from non- white ethnic groups with 92.1% from white ethnic groups.

The rights and well being of those from ethnic minorities are being protected by legislation and policies that have and are still being introduced.

Religion

The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations define religion or belief as, ‘any religion, religious belief, or similar philosophical belief’. The definition excludes philosophical and political beliefs unless those beliefs are similar to a religious belief, for example the belief has a profound effect on the person’s way of life.

In the 2001 Census just over three-quarters of the UK population reported having a religion with more than 7 out of 10 people saying that their religion was Christian (72%).

There are many other religions and religious beliefs including Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Sikh all to which people in Britain identify themselves. Background information about these and other religions can be found in the section ‘Understanding Others’