Ethnic minorities: population composition

National Records for Scotland will start to publish detailed results from the 2022 Census, starting with information on Ethnic group, national identity, language and religion, from May 2024. In the interim, we present data on ethnicity in Scotland from a mix of population surveys and administrative data.

The Family Resources Survey (2019-22) provides a detailed breakdown of adults in Scotland by ethnic group. This shows that 95% of the adult population of Scotland self-report as White. The largest identifiable Ethnic minority groups are Indian (0.9%), Pakistani (0.8%), Black or African or Caribbean or Black British (0.7%) and Chinese (0.5%).

Table 1: Composition of adult population by ethnic background: 2019-22

	Number of adults	%
White	4,163,656	95.3
Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Groups	13,315	0.3
Indian	40,037	0.9
Pakistani	33,363	0.8
Bangladeshi	4,811	0.1
Chinese	23,875	0.5
Any other Asian background	16,572	0.4
Black or African or Caribbean or Black British	32,656	0.7
Other Ethnic Group	42,315	1.0
TOTAL	4,370,601

The Annual Population Survey provides estimates (2022-23) of the adult population by whether they are white or non-white, and whether they were born in the UK. The table shows that 4% of the Scottish adult population were non-White born outside the UK, while 6.7% were White and born outside the UK.

	Number of adults	%
White : Born in UK	4,737,800	87.1
White : Born outside UK	362,400	6.7
Non-white : Born in UK	119,700	2.2
Non-white : Born outside UK	218,500	4.0

The Pupils Census includes data on the ethnic background of pupils at primary and secondary school in Scotland (excluding pupils based at grant aided special schools). In 2022, almost 75% of pupils were recorded as being ‘White Scottish’. Among those pupils with a known ethnicity, the largest groups non-British groups were ‘White other’ (3.6%), ‘White-Polish’ (2.4%) and ‘Asian-Pakistani’ (2.1%).

Table 2: Composition of pupils in Scotland by ethnic background: 2022

	Total	%
White – Scottish	527,115	74.7
White - Other British	45,719	6.5
White – Irish	1,495	0.2
White – Polish	17,097	2.4
White - Gypsy/Traveller	1,469	0.2
White – Other	25,379	3.6
Mixed	12,071	1.7
Asian - Indian	8,314	1.2
Asian - Pakistani	15,027	2.1
Asian - Bangladeshi	1,438	0.2
Asian - Chinese	5,242	0.7
Asian - Other	5,219	0.7
Caribbean/Black - Scottish/British	955	0.1
Caribbean/Black - Other	570	0.1
African - Scottish/British	7,262	1.0
African - Other	5,251	0.7
Arab	4,508	0.6
Other	5,177	0.7
Not known	13,001	1.8
Not disclosed	3,565	0.5
Total	705,874	100.0

Source: Pupil Census.

Some data is recorded on the ethnicity of babies born in Scotland. In 2022, ethnic data was recorded on 86% of live singleton births in Scotland. The largest identifiable ethnic groups were white (78%), Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British (4.4%) and African (1.3%).

Table 3: Live singleton births in Scotland, by ethnicity: Year ending 31 March 2022

	Number	%
Group A - White	35,781	77.8
Group B - Mixed or multiple	348	0.8
Group C - Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British	2,030	4.4
Group D - African	604	1.3
Group E - Caribbean or Black	109	0.2
Group F - Other	733	1.6
Group G - Refused or not provided by patient	682	1.5
Group H - Not Known	5,716	12.4
TOTAL	46,003	100.0

The Scottish Household Survey publishes estimates of the share of adult population aged 16+ in private households by broad ethnic group in 2022. At a local authority level, there were:

Larger Polish population in Angus, Highland and West Lothian
Larger Asian populations in Aberdeen, Dundee, East Renfrewshire, Edinburgh, Glasgow and West Lothian
Larger other Non-white minority ethnic populations in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow

Asylum seekers and refugees

Asylum seekers

At 31st March 2023, there were 5,086 asylum seekers in receipt of support in Scotland.
88% of these asylum seekers lived in Glasgow City, another 6% in Aberdeen City, Perth and Kinross and Renfrewshire, and 4% across City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, Inverclyde and South Lanarkshire.

Refugees

Between 2019 and 2023, there were 1,063 refugees resettled in Scotland.
28% of refugees were resettled in the City of Edinburgh, 10% in Glasgow

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.