Ethnic minorities: self-assessed health from 2001 Census

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The 2001 Census in Scotland asked respondents to describe their health in the previous twelve months and to say whether or not they had a limiting long-term illness. Self-assessed health was described simply in three categories as "good", "fairly good" or "not good". No questions were asked about the nature of any limiting long-term illness. Data from these questions are available by ethnic group and by religion.

Data by ethnic group

As expected, poorer self-assessed health was more common in older age groups (see Chart 1), but in each age group levels of self-reported poor health among Pakistanis and other South Asians were higher than the general population. Poor self-reported health was also more common among older Indian people. A similar pattern is seen for limiting long-term illness (to view data click here(16Kb)). Compared to the general population fewer Chinese people reported limiting long-term illness. Further information is available in the report Analysis of ethnicity in the 2001 Census produced by the Scottish Executive.

Data by religion

Religion is an important dimension of ethnicity and majorities in many ethnic groups identify strongly with particular religious traditions. To view Scottish data from the 2001 Census on self-assessed health by religion click here(17Kb). Muslim and Sikh women were more likely than women in other groups to report poor health, though the number of respondents in older age groups was small and the figures in these groups should be interpreted cautiously. Muslim, Roman Catholic and Sikh men were more likely than men from the general population to report poor health. More information on health and religion in the Census is contained in the report Analysis of religion in the 2001 Census(478Kb) published by the Scottish Executive.

Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.