Honours recipients
Published
There is a new version of this page. View the latest version.
1. Main facts and figures
-
in the New Year Honours List 2024, 87.2% of honours recipients were white (out of those whose ethnicity was known)
-
5.3% of honours recipients were Asian, 4.8% were black, 1.6% had mixed ethnicity, and 1.1% were from the ‘other’ ethnic group
-
white people received 85.0% of higher honours, including damehoods and knighthoods
-
out of all types of honour, MBE honours had the highest percentage of recipients from the Asian, black, mixed and ‘other’ ethnic groups combined (17.0%), followed by higher honours (15.0%)
-
between June 2014 and December 2023, the percentage of honours recipients from ethnic minorities (not including white minorities) went up from 6.5% to 12.8%
2. Things you need to know
What the data measures
The data measures the ethnicity of people who receive one of the following honours in the New Year and Birthday Honours lists:
- higher honours, including damehoods and knighthoods
- CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire)
- OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire)
- MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire)
- BEM (British Empire Medal)
Read more about the honours system. Percentages are rounded to 1 decimal point, but all differences have been worked out using unrounded data (available in the data file).
Not included in the data
The data does not include:
- people who did not accept their honour
- honours recipients who live abroad
The ethnic groups used in the data
Data is shown for these 5 aggregated ethnic groups:
- Asian
- black
- mixed
- white
- ‘other’
This means estimates are shown for these groups as a whole. This is because the number of honours recipients is too small to make any reliable conclusions about any of the 19 ethnic groups used in the 2021 Census.
Download the data for data on the 19 ethnic groups.
For the data shown over time, results are shown for 2 aggregated ethnic groups:
-
white – white ethnic groups, including white British and white ethnic minorities
-
other ethnic groups – all other ethnic groups combined
Ethnicity was not known for 0.7% of honours recipients in December 2023.
Methodology
The number of honours recipients is small and varies from year to year. Find out how group size affects the reliability of data.
Ethnicity classifications used for the 2023 data are slightly different to those for previous years, so some groups are not comparable over time.
There are some cases where a recipient’s ethnicity was recorded as white, but they did not provide their detailed ethnicity (for example, ‘white British’). These are labelled as “White - Unknown detailed group” in the data file.
In the data file
See Download the data for:
-
the number of recipients whose ethnicity was not known between June 2014 and December 2023
-
unrounded data for the 19 ethnic groups used in the 2021 Census
3. By ethnicity and type of honour
| All | Higher | CBE | OBE | MBE | BEM | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | All % | All Number | Higher % | Higher Number | CBE % | CBE Number | OBE % | OBE Number | MBE % | MBE Number | BEM % | BEM Number |
| Asian | 5.3 | 65 | 5.0 | 2 | 3.4 | 4 | 6.8 | 16 | 6.3 | 28 | 3.9 | 15 |
| Black | 4.8 | 59 | 5.0 | 2 | 0.9 | 1 | 5.1 | 12 | 7.2 | 32 | 3.1 | 12 |
| Mixed | 1.6 | 19 | 2.5 | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 0.8 | 2 | 2.5 | 11 | 1.3 | 5 |
| White | 87.2 | 1,061 | 85.0 | 34 | 93.1 | 108 | 86.4 | 204 | 83.0 | 367 | 90.9 | 348 |
| Other | 1.1 | 13 | 2.5 | 1 | 2.6 | 3 | 0.8 | 2 | 0.9 | 4 | 0.8 | 3 |
| Unknown | N/A* | 8 | N/A* | 0 | N/A* | 1 | N/A* | 3 | N/A* | 1 | N/A* | 3 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and type of honour’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and type of honour’ (CSV)
4. By ethnicity and type of honour over time
| White | Other Ethnic Groups (Excluding White Minorities) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time period | White Higher | White CBE | White OBE | White MBE | White BEM | Other Ethnic Groups (Excluding White Minorities) Higher | Other Ethnic Groups (Excluding White Minorities) CBE | Other Ethnic Groups (Excluding White Minorities) OBE | Other Ethnic Groups (Excluding White Minorities) MBE | Other Ethnic Groups (Excluding White Minorities) BEM |
| Jun-14 | 94.9 | 94.4 | 91.1 | 92.9 | 95.9 | 5.1 | 5.6 | 8.9 | 7.1 | 4.1 |
| Dec-14 | 92.9 | 96.3 | 94.4 | 91.1 | 97.2 | 7.1 | 3.7 | 5.6 | 8.9 | 2.8 |
| Jun-15 | 84.6 | 94.4 | 94.7 | 91.3 | 95.1 | 15.4 | 5.6 | 5.3 | 8.7 | 4.9 |
| Dec-15 | 94.7 | 96.2 | 95.2 | 91.6 | 96.5 | 5.3 | 3.8 | 4.8 | 8.4 | 3.5 |
| Jun-16 | 94.4 | 93.3 | 92.4 | 87.9 | 96.6 | 5.6 | 6.7 | 7.6 | 12.1 | 3.4 |
| Dec-16 | 91.9 | 93.8 | 91.2 | 88.9 | 91.8 | 8.1 | 6.3 | 8.8 | 11.1 | 8.2 |
| Jun-17 | 94.6 | 94.9 | 88.1 | 86.8 | 94.9 | 5.4 | 5.1 | 11.9 | 13.2 | 5.1 |
| Dec-17 | 91.8 | 92.6 | 89.6 | 88.2 | 94.8 | 8.2 | 7.4 | 10.4 | 11.8 | 5.2 |
| Jun-18 | 94.3 | 90.0 | 85.2 | 87.1 | 94.7 | 5.7 | 10.0 | 14.8 | 12.9 | 5.3 |
| Dec-18 | 100.0 | 96.3 | 87.1 | 82.3 | 92.7 | 0.0 | 3.7 | 12.9 | 17.7 | 7.3 |
| Jun-19 | 96.8 | 92.6 | 84.3 | 87.3 | 93.7 | 3.2 | 7.4 | 15.7 | 12.7 | 6.3 |
| Dec-19 | 85.3 | 87.2 | 88.5 | 84.7 | 90.8 | 14.7 | 12.8 | 11.5 | 15.3 | 9.2 |
| Oct-20 | 95.5 | 84.0 | 86.7 | 80.2 | 90.1 | 4.5 | 16.0 | 13.3 | 19.8 | 9.9 |
| Dec-20 | 96.7 | 86.0 | 85.8 | 84.1 | 86.4 | 3.3 | 14.0 | 14.2 | 15.9 | 13.6 |
| Jun-21 | 97.0 | 84.6 | 82.3 | 84.3 | 86.6 | 3.0 | 15.4 | 17.7 | 15.7 | 13.4 |
| Dec-21 | 82.4 | 89.4 | 83.9 | 82.8 | 87.7 | 17.6 | 10.6 | 16.1 | 17.2 | 12.3 |
| Jun-22 | 92.9 | 91.7 | 83.0 | 82.0 | 89.4 | 7.1 | 8.3 | 17.0 | 18.0 | 10.6 |
| Dec-22 | 73.3 | 83.8 | 82.3 | 80.6 | 90.0 | 26.7 | 16.2 | 17.7 | 19.4 | 10.0 |
| Jun-23 | 93.8 | 93.1 | 89.9 | 85.6 | 89.7 | 6.3 | 6.9 | 10.1 | 14.4 | 10.3 |
| Dec-23 | 85.0 | 93.1 | 86.4 | 83.0 | 90.9 | 15.0 | 6.9 | 13.6 | 17.0 | 9.1 |
Download table data for ‘By ethnicity and type of honour over time’ (CSV) Source data for ‘By ethnicity and type of honour over time’ (CSV)
5. Data sources
Source
Honours: lists, reform and operation
Type of data
Administrative data
Type of statistic
Official statistics
Publisher
Cabinet Office
Publication frequency
Twice a year
Purpose of data source
The collection of this data is for statistical purposes and aids the Honours and Appointments Secretariat in ensuring equality of representation in the honours system.
6. Download the data
This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, ethnicity_type, time, time_type, geography, award_level, value, value_type, numerator, denominator