About this release

The Scottish Government established an Expert Reference Group on COVID-19 and Ethnicity in June 2020 to consider and inform its approach in relation to the impacts of COVID-19 on minority ethnic communities. The current report is concerned with addressing the recommendations of the Group on improving data and evidence in ethnic health inequalities.

This report collates recent statistics on ethnic health inequalities in Scotland published by Public Health Scotland (PHS). PHS has published data on ethnic health inequalities on a number of occasions since its formation in April 2020.  Inevitably much of this data has focussed on the direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.      

This summary report sets out to:

  • collate the data and analyses that have been published by PHS on ethnic health inequalities in Scotland during the pandemic 
  • set out the actions that PHS has undertaken or planned with partners in response to the emerging data and evidence 
  • summarise the current status of ethnic data collection in health datasets and plans for improvement.

General enquiries

If you have an enquiry relating to this publication, please email phs.ethnicity@phs.scot.

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If you have a media enquiry relating to this publication, please contact the Communications and Engagement team.

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Older versions of this publication

Versions of this publication released before 16 March 2020 may be found on the Data and Intelligence, Health Protection Scotland or Improving Health websites.

Last updated: 21 March 2024
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