Life in the UK Focus on Ethnicity

Carnegie UK publishes an annual wellbeing index called Life in the UK. ​

This measures social, economic, environmental and democratic wellbeing across the UK, giving governments insight to understand whether we are collectively living better or worse.

The 2023 Life in the UK Index, conducted in partnership with Ipsos, was based on a survey of more than 6,900 people.

This 2023 insights paper presents further detail on the inequalities we identified in collective, social, economic, environmental and democratic wellbeing by ethnicity in the UK. It reveals how certain ethnic groups are doing less well than others.

For example, Black people are:

• At least twice as likely as those in all other ethnic groups to report that they can’t afford enough food for everyone in their household, and significantly more likely than all other ethnic groups to report that they can’t meet an unexpected but necessary expense of £850.
• Significantly more likely than those from the White British ethnic group (among others) to report low levels of trust in the legal system and courts as well as low levels of trust in the police.