How are 'write-in' answers allocated to ethnic groups in the 2001 Census?
A 'write-in' answer is where someone has ticked 'Other' in the ethnic group question, and then they have written in a description of their ethnic group.
The ethnic group question has a number of 'Other' sub-categories, which can be found under 'White', 'Mixed', 'Asian or Asian British', 'Black or Black British', and 'Chinese or Other ethnic group'.
In the 2001 Census in England & Wales, write-in responses have been allocated to one of our ethnic groups. For example, people who said they belonged to the 'Cypriot' ethnic group would be allocated to the 'Other White' group. Therefore, if you have a large Cypriot community in the area where you are collecting ethnic group data, you could include a Cypriot sub-category under the 'White' heading.
A summary of how write-in answers are allocated to the main census ethnic groups is shown here.
This will help you to separately identify ethnic groups that are not among the 2001 Census categories and enable you to compare your results with Census data, and with other organisations or areas that use the 2001 Census ethnic groups.
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