Geographies of Ethnic Diversity and Inequalities (GEDI)

This project aims to provide timely and impactful evidence on the ways in which ethnic diversity has grown, and the nature of the differing - and persistently unequal - neighbourhood experiences of people from different ethnic backgrounds. Where, and why, are neighbourhoods becoming more ethnically diverse? What are the processes that shape these local patterns? Have ethnic inequalities widened, and what is the geography of disadvantage? We will answer these, and related, questions through an innovative integration of previously disparate research strands on ethnic diversity, residential segregation, ethnic inequalities, and internal migration.

The UK's population, households and neighbourhoods are becoming increasingly ethnically and racially mixed and diverse. Alongside these demographic changes, the uneven impacts of, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic, austerity measures, and Brexit, have shone a light on persistent ethnic and racial disadvantages, between people and across local areas. The Census provides the most comprehensive data available on small area ethnic group populations, and the publication of 2021 data thus represents an important opportunity to understand societal change at the local level. The project team will undertake a combination of rapid response and sustained analyses of 2021 Census ethnic group data and explore change over time (from 1991) in England and Wales, expanding to Northern Ireland and Scotland as 2021/22 Census data are published.

The proposed collaboration between the Office for National Statistics (ONS), leading UK- and US-based scholars in the field, and project partners the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) and Runnymede Trust, brings together a team with significant collective experience and expertise. Supported by a Project Advisory Group from central and local government and the third sector, the team will explore pressing research questions, advance the scholarly literature, and generate a rich and robust evidence base for a diversity of user groups.

This 38-month project has three main, inter-related, work packages (WPs), each of which offer considerable originality. Each WP is aligned with Census data publication phases, and with complementary academic outputs and impact-related activities. WP1 (Ethnic diversity, segregation and mixing) aims to map and analyse the new, emerging and stable geographies of ethnic diversity, to understand better the dynamics of neighbourhood transitions by considering layers of mixing between individuals, households and the spaces in which people live, and to explore how ethnic, socio-economic and age segregation inter-relate. WP2 (Socio-spatial ethnic inequalities) will document, analyse and explain the extent and persistence of local ethnic inequalities, and how experiences of neighbourhood deprivation vary between ethnic groups. WP3 (Internal migration and (im)mobility) will pay greater attention to the processes that shape ethnic residential patterns, including the role of ethnic group differences in internal migration in changing neighbourhood ethnic concentrations and deprivation.

Academic outputs will include articles in leading international journals, conference presentations, and project events. Pathways to impact are interwoven throughout the project to ensure that the findings are accessible, open, and useful for a range of user beneficiaries (e.g., Departments for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and Work and Pensions, Local Authority (LA) and third sector analysts, inquiring citizens). Outputs include co-produced ONS Census Topic Publications, 2021 Census briefings, LA analysis toolkit (briefings, 'how to' guide, workshops), school educational resources, knowledge exchange events, and a dedicated web resource (outputs, code, interactive mapping tool). The project has significant potential to transform policy, political and public understandings of how the UK's population, and its neighbourhoods, are changing.