Local Government Candidates Survey 2022

A voluntary demographic survey of candidates running in the Scottish Local Government elections of 2022


7. Ethnicity

Candidates were asked to identify their ethnicity, with the aggregated results detailed below in table 4.

Table 4: What is your ethnic group?

Ethnicity

% of Respondents

White: Scottish

67.8%

White: Other British

17.5%

White: Other

6.6%

Asian

1.9%

All other ethnic groups

4.9%

Prefer not to say

1.3%

*White: Other includes those identifying as White: Polish due to concerns around disclosure control

The largest group were those identifying as White Scottish at 68%, with those identifying with any white group (including Other British, Polish and Other) totalling 92% of respondents overall.

A comparison of the respondents ethnic identification to the overall population has been made using data from the Scottish Surveys Core Questions dataset[8], the results of which can be found in figure 9 below.

Figure 9: Ethnic identification of respondents with overall Scottish population

Bar chart visualising the percentage difference between respondents and the Scottish population with regards to ethnic group. The chart shows that there were less White Scottish and Asian respondents and more White Other British, White Other and All Other ethnic groups represented as compared to the overall population.

The results of this comparison suggest some variance between the respondent group of candidates and the overall population, notably with White Scottish and Asians being underrepresented, whilst White Other British, White Other, and All Other Ethnic Groups being overrepresented.

With regards to electoral outcome figure 10 highlights the proportions of each ethnic group by whether they were elected or unelected. The data demonstrates that individuals who identify as white Scottish made up 75% of successfully elected candidates. Non-white individuals made up 4% of elected candidates and 9% of unelected candidates

Figure 10: Electoral outcome by ethnicity

Bar chart visualising ethnicity of respondents split by electoral outcome (i.e. who was successfully elected). Chart shows that the majority of individuals who were successfully elected were White Scottish.

Contact

Email: Arfan.Iqbal@Gov.Scot

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