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Ethnic minority households

People from ethnic minorities face greater barriers due to structural racism and this is reflected in poverty and child poverty figures.

Relative child poverty rates by ethnic background, Scotland 

Ethnicity trend 22

Estimates of the percentage of children in poverty by ethnicity are only available at a Scottish level, but show how child poverty is higher for ethnic minorities. Around 39% of children from a minority ethnic household were in relative poverty in Scotland in 2019-22, compared with 22% of children from a White-British household. The lowest rate for this group over this time period was recorded in 2013-16, when 29% of children from a minority ethnic household were in relative poverty - although this was still seven percentage points higher than the rate for children from a White-British household. Since that point, rates have been rising for both groups, but more steeply for minority ethnic households. 

In the chart above, the population is split into only two groups - White-British and minority ethnic. This means that we cannot see the difference between rates for different ethnicities. For most years, sample sizes have not been large enough to produce estimates for different groups by ethnicity. The most recent figures we have are the five-year child poverty estimates from 2015-20. The chart below shows these estimates. 

Ethnicity 2015 20

Whereas 22% of children from a White-British household were living in relative poverty over this time period, the rate was 27% for children in 'White-other' households. For both other groups listed - 'mixed, Black or Black British and other' and 'Asian or Asian British', the rates were much higher, at 44%. These groups are amalgamations of various ethnicities, based on the data available, so it is possible that improving data sources could show more clearly which groups are most impacted by relative child poverty. 

A 2020 report by CRER highlights that between the three year estimates of 2015-18 and 2016-19, non-white ethnic minority households saw a rise in relative child poverty, from 40% to 44%, which was experienced by no other child poverty priority group over the same period. Because of the change in how these rates were calculated, they are not comparable to the estimates shown above.

Glasgow is becoming more ethnically diverse, and a growing proportion of schoolchildren in Glasgow come from an ethnic minority. In 2019, 24% of pupils, or 16,600 pupils, were from an ethnic minority, an increase of 5,500 since 2012. This means that it is important in the Glasgow context to understand the higher risk of poverty that children from ethnic minority households face. 

Notes

These data come from Scottish Government statistics. This page was updated in April 2023. It will be updated when figures are next released.

Further reading under ‘Child poverty priority groups’