We at Umbrella recognise that ethnic identity is a hugely variable and personal thing. You may have people within your organisation who identify with a wide range of labels for their ethnic identity, or with none. But we also know that reporting and visualisation of people's identities require some simplification and grouping of people. The labels and groupings that we use reflect best practice as we currently understand it, as well as reporting needs within the UK for many organisations. As such, we sometimes separate identities that may seem similar, or group identities that may seem different.

When you upload a dataset that includes an ethnicity column, you may use the following values. (In each case, the values on each line are treated as identical when they're processed. The values are separated by the / character.)

  • Black
  • Black African / Black Afrikan / Afrikan
  • Black British
  • Black Caribbean / Caribbean
  • BAME / Black and minority ethnic / Black, Asian and minority ethnic / Black Asian and minority ethnic
  • Chinese / Han
  • Indian
  • Pakistani
  • Bangladeshi
  • Asian / Japanese / Korean
  • South Asian / South-asian
  • South East Asian / South-East Asian / South-East-Asian
  • West Asian / Turkish / Iranian / Arabian / Arabic / Arab / Jewish / Israeli / Middle-Eastern
  • White / Caucasian
  • White British / White English / White Welsh / White Scottish
  • White Irish / Irish
  • Other white / White other
  • Bi-racial / Biracial / Multiracial / Multi-racial / Mixed
  • Other / Hispanic / Latinx / Latino / Latina
  • Undisclosed / Prefer not to say

An empty row (no text) is also allowed, and is treated the same as 'undisclosed'.

If your file contains values other than these, the dataset will not convert and you will receive an error message telling exactly where in your file the problem value lies.

If you would like additional possibilities added to the list, please do let us know! We're always excited to learn more about the people around us.