Evidence for Equality National Survey: a Survey of Ethnic Minorities During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021

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The Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE), led by the University of Manchester with the Universities of St Andrews, Sussex, Glasgow, Edinburgh, LSE, Goldsmiths, King's College London and Manchester Metropolitan University, designed and carried out the Evidence for Equality National Survey (EVENS), with Ipsos as the survey partner. EVENS documents the lives of ethnic and religious minorities in Britain during the coronavirus pandemic and is, to date, the largest and most comprehensive survey to do so.

EVENS used online and telephone survey modes, multiple languages, and a suite of recruitment strategies to reach the target audience. Words of Colour coordinated the recruitment strategies to direct participants to the survey, and partnerships with 13 voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations[1] helped to recruit participants for the survey.

The ambition of EVENS was to better represent ethnic and religious minorities compared to existing data sources regarding the range and diversity of represented minority population groups and the topic coverage. Thus, the EVENS survey used an 'open' survey approach, which requires participants to opt-in to the survey instead of probability-based approaches that invite individuals to participate following their identification within a pre-defined sampling frame. This 'open' approach sought to overcome some of the limitations of probability-based methods in order to reach a large number and diverse mix of people from religious and ethnic minorities.

EVENS included a wide range of research and policy questions, including education, employment and economic well-being, housing, social, cultural and political participation, health, and experiences of racism and discrimination, particularly with respect to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Crucially, EVENS covered a full range of racial, ethnic and religious groups, including those often unrepresented in such work (such as Chinese, Jewish and Traveller groups) and resulting in the participation of 14,215 participants, including 9,702 ethnic minority participants and a general population sample of 4,513, composed of White people who classified themselves as English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, and British. Data collection covered the period between 16 February 2021 and 14 August 2021.

Further information about the study can be found on the EVENS project website.

[1] The VCSE organisations included Business in the Community, BEMIS (Scotland), Ethnic Minorities and Youth Support Team (Wales), Friends, Families and Travellers, Institute for Jewish Policy Research, Migrants' Rights Networks, Muslim Council Britain, NHS Race and Health Observatory, Operation Black Vote, Race Equality Foundation, Runnymede Trust, Stuart Hall Foundation, and The Ubele Initiative.

Main topics

Ethnic minorities, religious minorities, ethnicity, inequality, education, employment and economic well-being, housing, social participation, cultural participation, political participation, health, experiences of racism, experiences of discrimination, impact of COVID-19 pandemic.