A big part of how we live together is what happens in the labour market. Do ethnic groups diverge in levels of economic activity and the types of jobs they do?

This map allows you to explore economic activity at different geographical levels (wards, local authorities, regions, countries) and at different points in time. It is also possible to compare men with women.

Economic activity refers to all those who work or who are looking for work. Economic inactivity refers to those who are withdrawn from the labour market although they may still be doing productive things like caring for someone, education, or keeping home. For more information click here.

Industry refers to which sectors people are working in. For more information click here.

Occupational class allows us to look at people’s status of employment but also to look at alternatives such as study and long-term unemployment. It is based on the government’s NS-SEC classification scheme. For more information click here.

Percentages for each ethnic group are calculated using data from the 2001 and 2011 censuses of England and Wales.

Click on a region to get a fuller report of its economic profile. It is possible to zoom in and out and share a link to the current view. You can also toggle between percentages and absolute numbers and toggle on and off the data panes to facilitate exploring.

Regions are coloured according to quintiles. Darker shades represent a higher concentration of people within a particular economic category. To ease comparisons across time and ethnic groups, it is possible to lock the quintile distribution. Data are on people aged 16 to 74 in both censuses.