Northern Ireland Racial Equality Indicators Report: 2014 - 2019

The Executive Office today published ‘Northern Ireland Racial Equality Indicators Report: 2014 - 2019’. The report presents data measuring the progress of the Racial Equality Strategy 2015 - 2025 on four key outcome areas: equality of service provision; combating prejudice, racism and hate crime; participation, representation, and belonging; and, respecting cultural diversity.

Some of the key findings for the period 2014 - 2019 include:

Equality of service provision

• Since the baseline year (2013/14), by 2018/19 there has been an overall increase of around seven percentage points for both White and minority ethnic young people leaving school with 5 GCSEs (Grade A* - C): White: 86.5%; minority ethnic: 82.4%.
• By 2018/19 the proportion of White school leavers with no qualifications (0.6%) was similar to 2013/14 (0.7%); the percentage of minority ethnic school leavers with no qualifications had decreased from 5.8% in 2013/14 to 2.2% in 2018/19.
• In 2019, 66% of NILT respondents thought it important that public bodies take into account the needs of minority ethnic communities; while a similar position to baseline (2014: 65%), this was a significant decrease on the previous year (2018: 70%).

Combating prejudice, racism and hate crime

• Compared with the baseline (2014), by 2019, willingness to accept Eastern European, Irish Traveller and Muslims as residents, as work colleagues, or as family members, had all increased significantly. In 2019, acceptance of Irish Travellers was lowest when compared with each of the groups in these situations.  
• Overall, at 2019 the proportion of respondents reporting they were prejudiced against people from minority ethnic communities had increased significantly since the baseline and 2018 (2014: 24%; 2018: 20%; 2019: 29%).
• Compared with the baseline and 2018, in 2019 there was a significant decrease in the proportion of respondents thinking there is more racial prejudice against people from minority ethnic communities than 5 years ago (2014: 52%; 2018: 41%; 2019: 30%).

Participation, representation and belonging

• Compared with the baseline, in 2019 there was a decrease of 14 percentage points in the proportion of respondents who thought that minority ethnic people participated ‘a little’ or ‘a lot’ in public life (2014: 71%; 2019: 57%).
• Overall, there was no significant change in the proportion of respondents who believed organisations and leaders should encourage members of minority ethnic communities to participate in public life (2014: 67%; 2019: 64%); however, this was a significant decrease on 2018 (69%).
• A significantly higher proportion of respondents aged 16 years in 2019 (62%) said they socialised or played sport with people from a different ethnic background than in 2014 (54%).

Respecting cultural diversity

• Since baseline there was no significant change in the percentage of respondents who agreed that the culture and traditions of the minority ethnic community added to the richness and diversity of Northern Ireland (2014: 59%; 2019: 61%); however, the position at 2019 was a significant decrease on the year before (2018: 65%).
• Overall, there was a significant increase in the proportion of respondents who agreed that the culture of Irish Travellers is more respected than it once was (2014: 18%; 2019: 25%); the position at 2019 was also significantly higher than in 2018 (18%).
• In 2019, the percentage of people with friends from minority ethnic communities (53%) was higher than the baseline position (2014: 42%).

The report is available on The Executive Office Statistics and Research Branch website at: www.executiveoffice-ni.gov.uk/topics/statistics-and-research/racial-equality

Further information relating to the collection and production of the statistics can be obtained by contacting:

Share this page