Community and belonging

Published 8 August 2023

Contents

1. Main facts and figures

• in the year to March 2020, 86% of black people aged 16 and over in England said they felt strongly that they belong to Britain – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups

• 77% of people from mixed ethnic backgrounds said they felt strongly that they belong to Britain – the lowest percentage out of all ethnic groups

• 67% of Asian people said they felt strongly that they belonged to their neighbourhood – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups

• 44% of people from the ‘other’ ethnic group felt strongly that they belonged to their neighbourhood – the lowest percentage out of all ethnic groups

• 86% of Asian people agreed that people from different backgrounds got on well in their local area, compared with 75% of people from the ‘other’ ethnic group – however, there were no reliable differences between ethnic groups

• white people (74%) were the most likely out of all ethnic groups to say they chatted to their neighbours at least once a month – people from the ‘other’ ethnic group (54%) were least likely

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data measures:

• how strongly people from different ethnic groups feel they belong to both their local neighbourhood and Britain

• how well integrated people feel their neighbourhood is

• the percentage of people who say they chat to their neighbours more than just to say hello at least once a month

Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number.

Not included in the data

Data based on fewer than 30 people is not included as it makes estimates unreliable.

The ethnic groups used in the data

People chose their ethnicity from a list of 18 ethnic groups used in the 2011 Census.

Data is shown for the following 5 aggregated groups:

• Asian
• black
• mixed
• white
• ‘other’

This means estimates are shown for these groups as a whole. This is because the number of people surveyed was too small to make reliable generalisations about all 18 ethnic groups.

Methodology

Read the detailed methodology document (PDF) (PDF opens in a new window or tab) for the data.

The figures on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about interpreting survey data, including how reliability is affected by the number of people surveyed.

You can also read about how weighting is used to make survey estimates more representative of the group they are about.

3. By ethnicity (feeling of belonging to Britain)

• Location: England
• Time period: April 2016 to March 2020
• Source: Community Life Survey 2019/20

Percentage and number of respondents who feel fairly or very strongly that they belong to Britain, by ethnicity over time

	2016-17		2017-18		2018-19		2019-20
Ethnicity	2016-17 %	2016-17 Number of respondents	2017-18 %	2017-18 Number of respondents	2018-19 %	2018-19 Number of respondents	2019-20 %	2019-20 Number of respondents
All	85	7,343	85	7,537	84	7,891	84	7,820
Asian	84	993	84	859	83	840	85	728
Black	81	197	82	233	75	213	86	253
Mixed	79	143	73	197	80	200	77	211
White	85	5,821	86	6,107	85	6,464	84	6,243
Other	68	120	79	85	62	96	78	79

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

4. By ethnicity (feeling of belonging to a neighbourhood)

• Location: England
• Time period: April 2016 to March 2020
• Source: Community Life Survey 2019/20

Percentage and number of respondents who feel fairly or very strongly that they belong to their neighbourhood, by ethnicity over time

	2016-17		2017-18		2018-19		2019-20
Ethnicity	2016-17 %	2016-17 Number of respondents	2017-18 %	2017-18 Number of respondents	2018-19 %	2018-19 Number of respondents	2019-20 %	2019-20 Number of respondents
All	62	10,215	62	10,173	62	10,599	63	10,203
Asian	64	1,109	65	925	59	907	67	795
Black	60	357	56	353	62	348	62	393
Mixed	65	462	56	508	61	497	63	460
White	61	7,996	63	8,067	62	8,541	63	8,034
Other	62	162	44	124	47	125	44	117

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

5. By ethnicity (feeling of community integration)

• Location: England
• Time period: April 2016 to March 2020
• Source: Community Life Survey 2019/20

Percentage and number of people aged 16 and over who felt people from different backgrounds got on well in their local area, by ethnicity over time

	2016-17		2017-18		2018-19		2019-20
Ethnicity	2016-17 Percentage	2016-17 Number of respondents	2017-18 Percentage	2017-18 Number of respondents	2018-19 Percentage	2018-19 Number of respondents	2019-20 Percentage	2019-20 Number of respondents
All	81	9,963	82	9,551	81	10,344	82	10,060
Asian	85	1,095	84	906	86	901	86	791
Black	77	354	78	330	86	335	84	394
Mixed	80	460	82	460	83	484	85	460
White	81	7,774	83	7,572	81	8,327	81	7,897
Other	81	159	78	120	78	121	75	118

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

6. By ethnicity (chatting regularly with neighbours)

• Location: England
• Time period: April 2016 to March 2020
• Source: Community Life Survey 2019/20

Percentage and number of respondents who said they chat to their neighbours at least once a month, by ethnicity over time

	2016-17		2017-18		2018-19		2019-20
Ethnicity	2016-17 %	2016-17 Number of respondents	2017-18 %	2017-18 Number of respondents	2018-19 %	2018-19 Number of respondents	2019-20 %	2019-20 Number of respondents
All	73	10,235	73	10,191	72	10,607	72	10,222
Asian	67	1,108	67	923	66	908	64	795
Black	68	360	62	352	65	348	66	395
Mixed	70	463	68	508	66	497	67	462
White	74	8,009	74	8,089	73	8,548	74	8,045
Other	67	162	54	124	51	124	54	118

Download table data (CSV) Source data (CSV)

7. Data sources

Source

Community Life Survey 2019/20

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

Official statistics

Publisher

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The Community Life Survey tracks developments in areas that are important to encouraging social action and empowering communities.

These include:

• volunteering and charitable giving
• neighbourhood (views about the local area, community cohesion and belonging)
• civic engagement and social action
• wellbeing

8. Download the data

Feeling of Belonging to Britain - Spreadsheet (csv) 2 KB

This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, value, number of respondents

Feeling of belonging to a neighbourhood - Spreadsheet (csv) 2 KB

This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, value, number of respondents

Feeling of community integration - Spreadsheet (csv) 3 KB

This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, value, number of respondents

Chatting regularly with neighbours - Spreadsheet (csv) 2 KB

This file contains the following: measure, ethnicity, year, value, number of respondents

Publication release date: 8 August 2023

full page history

1. 8 August 2023 First published

From: Department for Culture, Media and Sport

This page replaces 4 older pages:

1. Chatting regularly with neighbours
2. Feeling of belonging to a neighbourhood
3. Feeling of belonging to Britain
4. Feeling of community integration

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