Ethnic groups for Great Britain

As per the Good Friday Agreement, employers have to capture different Ethnicity groups/ categories for England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

For Northern Ireland, specific requirements comply with the Good Friday Agreement (where it is not acceptable to ask respondents to choose between Northern Irish/British and Irish identities) and legislation under the Race Relations (NI) Order 1997, which outlaws discrimination on grounds of colour, race, nationality or ethnic or national origin. The Irish Traveller community is specifically identified in the Order as a racial group against which racial discrimination is unlawful.

Following the Race Equality Advisory Forum in 2001 and concerns by some communities in Scotland about the classifications used in the 2001 Census, the Scottish Government and the General Register Office for Scotland worked together to conduct a review. This review came with specific requirements for the ethnicity classification for Scotland, which was subsequently discussed by Members of the Scottish Parliament and amended for use on the Scottish 2011 Census.