Office of National Statistics
Census 2011/ 2021
challenge
As part of conducting the Census in 2011 and 2021, it was important to ensure the vulnerable, ethnic minority and hard to reach audiences are fully represented and have the opportunity to shape how the questions are worded in the census information collection.
OUR APPROACH
We conducted multiple focus groups amongst various ethnic minority audiences all across the South East & Midlands to review the question wording with them, the languages that they’d like to see the census are in and the approach from the interviewers – face to face vs. online. Projective techniques were used to get to the bottom of their challenges and possible solutions.
THE INSIGHT
It is important to provide the right choices to the public when there is a national survey of this stature being conducted. There are nuances in people’s ability to respond to the census and feeling represented as part of the exercise. These nuances vary by people’s education levels, cultural backgrounds and ability to see their fit in the society.
THE IMPACT
The questionnaire at the end came across as inclusive and intended to provide enough representation from the ethnic minority groups in the best way possible. It also provided options of online, in person followed by online and language choices that were previously not covered.
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