Timeline 1900 – 2024

Great Britain Census

The 1991 Great Britain Census ethnic group question did not include ‘mixed’ categorisation. However, the question instruction stated that: ‘If the person is descended from more than one ethnic or racial group, please tick the group to which the person considers he/she belongs, or tick the “Any other ethnic group” box and describe the person’s ancestry in the space provided’. Around 230,000 persons gave mixed origin descriptions, perhaps around two-thirds of those who then had ‘mixed’ origins. These findings questioned research up until then that had indicated that people from ‘Mixed’ groups preferred to identify with one or other of their parental ethnicities.