Ethnic minorities: key points

• Scotland has a number of white ethnic minority groups, including those of English, Irish and Eastern European origins. However, this section focuses on the non-white minority groups, which formed 2.01% of the Scottish population in the 2001 Census. This total does not include gypsy travellers, refugees, asylum seekers or migrant workers.
• Minority ethnic groups are younger than the general population and many were born in Scotland.
• The largest non-white minority ethnic group is Pakistani (white Irish are a larger ethnic group but are not included in the 2.01% figure).
• There is a clear policy commitment in Scotland to address discrimination against minority ethnic groups and inequalities in health.
• Understanding needs and monitoring progress is hampered by the severe lack of routine information on the health of minority ethnic groups in Scotland.
• Work is in progress to improve the routine collection of data on ethnicity in order to address ethnic inequalities in health.
• Minority ethnic groups in general have lower mortality than the general population, but may have specific health problems, such as heart disease and diabetes among South Asians.
  

 

Section updates: The last major update of this section was completed in March 2009.   The next major update is due to be carried out by March 2010.