Country of birth

Country of birth is the country in which a person was born.

Total number of categories 58

Question 9 - What is your country of birth?

• Scotland
• England
• Northern Ireland
• Wales
• Republic of Ireland
• Elsewhere, please write in the current name of the country

Information from the traditional question on country of birth will provide further information on migrants and their characteristics. This information will provide estimates of the numbers and circumstances of (sometimes small) communities of people from various countries and, in particular, refugees and asylum seekers who may have particular needs.

This information identifies all long-term international migrants not identified by their response to question 11 (your address one year ago). Combined with other statistics, this information is used to produce international and national migration statistics, which are then used to produce population projections.

These statistics are used to allocate resources and to develop and monitor policy, to assess the needs of particular groups in the population, for example those migrating from outside the EU; to analyse trends in migration patterns and for the planning and provision of facilities and services.

Also, when used in combination with information on ethnic group and religion, these statistics give a more detailed level of information about the cultural background of people at a local level. Additionally, answers to this question can help to identify groups not identified by the question on ethnic group.

This information is also used in population estimates to make adjustments for fertility rates according to country of birth.

This question is identical to the question asked in England & Wales in 2021 and in Scotland's Census in 2011.

Users should be mindful of changes in EU members and accession states between 2011 and 2022. This will affect the number of countries which make up certain categories when comparing the results between censuses.

Country of birth is the country in which a person was born. The grouping of countries within the classification is broadly regional, but takes into account the grouping of European Union (EU) countries. Countries in the EU are grouped into those that were EU members in March 2001, and those that became members (accession countries) between April 2001 and March 2011 as part of the EU enlargement process.

Total number of categories 275

The categories in these classifications may have been combined within the tables based on the country of birth hierarchy.

7: What is your country of birth?

• Scotland
• England
• Wales
• Northern Ireland
• Republic of Ireland
• Elsewhere, please write in the current name of the country

Information from the traditional question on country of birth will provide further information on migrants and their characteristics. This information will provide estimates of the numbers and circumstances of (sometimes small) communities of people from various countries and, in particular, refugees and asylum seekers who may have particular needs.

This information identifies all long-term international migrants not identified by their response to question 10 (your address one year ago). Combined with other statistics, this information is used to produce international and national migration statistics, which are then used to produce population projections.

These statistics are used to allocate resources and to develop and monitor policy, to assess the needs of particular groups in the population, for example those migrating from outside the EU; to analyse trends in migration patterns and for the planning and provision of facilities and services.

Also, when used in combination with information on ethnic group and religion, these statistics give a more detailed level of information about the cultural background of people at a local level. Additionally, answers to this question can help to identify groups not identified by the question on ethnic group.

This information is also used in population estimates to make adjustments for fertility rates according to country of birth.

This question is the same as it was in 2001 and ONS use the same format for the question. The data is fully comparable with England and Wales (2011) and Scotland (2001) data.

This question records each person's country of birth. A different order is used for the tick box responses for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Where there is no applicable tick-box, the respondent is asked to write-in the present name of their country of birth. The variable is coded using the ONS Geography Classification of Countries (OGCC) (a coding system used in some other ONS outputs).

Total number of categories 237