Ethnic minorities: population composition

The 2022 Census provides a detailed breakdown of all people in Scotland (excluding asylum seekers and refugees) by ethnic group. This shows that almost 93% of the population identify as White, of which 1.7% are White Polish and <0.1% are White Gypsy/Travellers.

The largest identifiable non-White ethnic groups of people in Scotland are Pakistani (1.3%), Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups (1.1%), Indian (1.0%), Other African (1.0%) and Chinese (0.9%).

**Table 1: White and non-white ethnic minorities in Scotland, column percentages, 2022**
Ethnic group	Number	%
White: White Scottish	4,226,965	77.70
White: Other White British	510,354	9.38
Other White	163,600	3.01
White: White Polish	90,736	1.67
White: White Irish	56,877	1.05
White: Gypsy/Traveller	3,343	0.06
TOTAL WHITE	5,051,875	92.9
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Pakistani, Pakistani Scottish or Pakistani British	72,871	1.34
Mixed or multiple ethnic group	60,899	1.12
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Indian, Indian Scottish or Indian British	52,951	0.97
African: Other African	52,729	0.97
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Chinese, Chinese Scottish or Chinese British	47,075	0.87
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Other Asian	32,187	0.59
Other ethnic groups: Other ethnic group	27,328	0.50
Other ethnic groups: Arab, Arab Scottish or Arab British	22,304	0.41
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Bangladeshi, Bangladeshi Scottish or Bangladeshi British	6,934	0.13
African: African, African Scottish or African British	5,907	0.11
Caribbean or Black: Other Caribbean or Black	4,018	0.07
Caribbean or Black: Caribbean, Caribbean Scottish or Caribbean British	2,214	0.04
Caribbean or Black: Black, Black Scottish or Black British	546	0.01
TOTAL NON-WHITE	387,963	7.13

Source: National Records of Scotland, Scotland’s Census 2022.

Comparing the age structures of different ethnic groups, Non-White Ethnic Minority Groups, White Gypsy/Travellers and White Polish people have a younger age structure than White British and Irish people.

**Table 2: Age distribution of Scottish population, row percentages: Scotland, 2022**
	0 - 15	16 - 24	25 - 34	35 - 49	50 - 64	> 65
White: Total	15.6	10.2	12.4	18.2	22.4	21.3
White: Gypsy/Traveller	20.2	13.5	16.5	20.6	19.1	10.0
White: White Polish	21.6	10.4	18.3	38.3	9.0	2.4
Mixed or multiple ethnic group	40.9	18.7	15.1	14.7	7.5	3.1
Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British: Total	23.1	18.1	17.7	24.5	11.5	5.0
African: Total	31.4	11.9	18.1	28.6	8.2	1.6
Caribbean or Black: Total	18.5	15.9	18.8	23.1	17.5	6.2
Other ethnic groups: Total	24.0	14.5	19.0	25.7	11.5	5.3

Source: National Records of Scotland, Scotland’s Census 2022.

The distribution of different ethnic groups varies across Scotland. At a local authority level, there were large non-White populations in Glasgow City, City of Edinburgh, Aberdeen City, East Renfrewshire and Dundee City. In more detail, there were large Polish populations in Aberdeen City, City of Edinburgh and West Lothian; and large Asian populations in Glasgow City, East Renfrewshire and the City of Edinburgh.

Asylum seekers and refugees

Asylum seekers

At 31st March 2023, there were 5,086 asylum seekers in receipt of support in Scotland.
88% of these asylum seekers lived in Glasgow City, another 6% in Aberdeen City, Perth and Kinross and Renfrewshire, and 4% across City of Edinburgh, Falkirk, Inverclyde and South Lanarkshire.

Refugees

Between 2019 and 2023, there were 1,063 refugees resettled in Scotland.
28% of refugees were resettled in the City of Edinburgh, 10% in Glasgow

Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.