Ethnicity

Reading these charts

When reading the charts in this publication:
  • solid bars have significant differences in time to at least one other group
  • hatched bars have no significant difference to any other group
  • missing bars mean that this value has been suppressed due to small numbers of responses for that breakdown

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1 Introduction

Respondents taking part in the survey were asked the following question: “What is your ethnic group?”

  • White
  • Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups
  • Asian / Asian British
  • Black / African / Caribbean / Black British
  • Other ethnic group

Follow-up questions based on answer selected were as follows:

If White: “Would you identify yourself as…”

  • English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British
  • Irish
  • Gypsy or Irish Traveller
  • Polish
  • Any other White background, please describe

If mixed/multiple ethnic: “Would you identify yourself as…”

  • White and Black Caribbean
  • White and Black African
  • White and Asian
  • Any other Mixed/Multiple ethnic background, please describe

If Asian/Asian British: “Would you identify yourself as…”

  • Indian
  • Pakistani
  • Bangladeshi
  • Chinese
  • Any other Asian background, please describe

If Black/African/Caribbean/Black British: “Would you identify yourself as…”

  • African
  • Caribbean
  • Any other Black/African/Caribbean background, please describe

If other ethnic group: “Would you identify yourself as…”

  • Arab
  • Any other ethnic group, please describe

Due to the small sample sizes involved for some ethnic groups it was not possible to disaggregate by all ethnic groups included in the question, instead disaggregation is based on the following categories: ‘White’, ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’, and ‘other minority ethnicities’ (compromising all other ethnic groups.)

There were 1,059 diary days for ‘White’ respondents, 16 diary days for ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’ respondents, and 14 diary days for ‘other minority ethnicities’.

Small sample sizes can affect significance estimates. For this reason caution is advised when making comparisons between groups with a sample of fewer than 50. This is the case with the categories of ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’ and ‘other minority ethnicities’ where there are fewer than 50 diary days, thus readers are advised to exercise care when interpreting the following results.

2 Activity type

There were no differences by ethnic groups in the main activity type categories, however there were some differences within the categories, which will be explored in this chapter.

4 Unpaid work

4.1 ‘White’ respondents spent more time on travel and other unpaid work compared to ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’ respondents

Figure 1: Bar chart showing average time spent on unpaid work by ethnicity, Scotland, 2020

Looking at the category of unpaid work, ‘White’ respondents spent more time on travel than ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’ respondents (an average of 34 minutes versus 8 minutes respectively).

‘White’ respondents also spent more time on other unpaid work than ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’ respondents (59 minutes versus 21 minutes respectively). Other unpaid work includes activities a person could choose to pay someone else to do, but do for themselves or other for free, such as DIY or gardening.

5 Personal care

5.1 ‘White’ respondents spent more time than ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’ respondents on personal fitness and other personal care

Figure 2: Bar chart showing average time spent on personal care by ethnicity, Scotland, 2020

In the category of personal care, ‘White’ respondents spent more time than ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’ respondents on personal fitness (an average of 14 minutes versus 7 minutes respectively).

‘White’ respondents also spent more time on other personal care than ‘Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British’ respondents (2 hours and 17 minutes versus 1 hour and 27 minutes respectively). Other personal care includes activities such as drinking (e.g. tea, coffee, alcohol), eating/eating out/having a takeaway, snacking, showering and getting ready, and using the bathroom.

6 Free time

There were no differences between ethnic groups in the category of free time.

7 Did activity type

The sample sizes involved for some groups meant it was not possible to analyse based only on the proportion of the sample who did an activity on a given day.

8 Did paid work

The sample sizes involved for some groups meant it was not possible to analyse based only on the proportion of the sample who did paid work on a given day.

9 Did unpaid work

The sample sizes involved for some groups meant it was not possible to analyse based only on the proportion of the sample who did unpaid work on a given day.