Do you have much diversity within your friendship group?

[FiloPasty]

Just wondering really, I’m in a friendship group of 12 of us that started at a nursery Book club, we’re all now at a variety of mostly independent schools but some state schools.
Overall despite different upbringings we are pretty well matched and I wondered if this caused different issues elsewhere

Not that ethnically diverse; wide range of ages, incomes, sexualities, education levels etc. But it also depends how you are defining 'friends' - people you share a hobby with, people you have known most of your life, people you work with but also socialise with, former workmates you still sometimes socialise with even though one or more of you moved on from that workplace some time ago, people who live near you...

Not really. Mostly white, middle-aged, middle-class English and Welsh.

Not especially ethnically diverse but by nationality, education, career and background extremely diverse.

My closest friends are a mix of German, Italian, Romanian, British, Australian & Swedish. Some educated just to school level, some university, some still studying professionally now in their 30s.

Varied selection of jobs from hospitality/tourism up to high level finance. Incomes and day to day lifestyles therefore equally widely varied.

I can't imagine being surrounded only by people very similar to me. Variety is the spice of life.

Ethically diverse, and a mix of sexualities, but mostly middle class.

@FiloPasty

Are you coming to answer any of the questions ?

My main question is 'diverse in what way ?

Why do people start threads like this, and 24 hours later still haven't come back?

I've had friends from all over the world - trained as a nurse in London on the 90s and had a very diverse class and friends. It's been the same at every hospital. My FB is full of people from every continent.

My current location is somewhere that isn't as ethnically diverse. But my friends are from struggling to feed their kids, to other HCPs. DV survivors to members of boards of well renowned corporations. Sometimes both at the same time. Ages from mid 20s to 60s and beyond.

Not ethnically diverse. All very white.

My closest friends are all like me in terms of education, professional jobs, family life and a faith.

But my wider friendships are quite diverse in age.

Probably data collecting to see how "diverse" Mumsnet is or something along those lines, or to point out how the stereotype of Mumsnet users being mostly white and middle class is true, based on this thread anyway.

FWIW I'm male and don't really have any friends. All my colleagues bar one are straight, white and male though. Funnily enough, I get on with my lesbian colleague better than 80% of the others. Wouldn't really class them as friends though as I know if I were to leave my job I would be unlikely to keep in touch with any of them.

Age range is 30s - 60s. All working class/working class military backgrounds.

In college I was part of a wider group, again 95% white. There was a sprinkling of LG and B folks but no Ts.

I don't feel that my life is lacking anything or that I am somehow less enriched by not having much diversity around me.

My daughter is mixed British/Eastern European culturally. Her best friend at Nursery is a boy, her best friend outside Nursery that she sees often is a British-African girl, so she's already in a far more diverse circle than I ever was.

I know exactly why they do it @FrothyB - I wasn't being dim, I was expressing my irritation at yet another thread where the OP lobs in a question and then buggers off, never to return.

Im a carer so the few friends I have are all the same demographic as me. White, working class and all carers.
We don't live in a very diverse area sadly, where we live is something like 98% white.... So other than some online friends who are black /Asian I don't know anyone. We do however have a thriving and very busy multicultural forum / group which looks great fun and ive considering joining. It was initially set up to help refugees new to the area integrate and has developed from that to a much larger group.

Yes, very mixed both in family and friends - good mix of nationalities/ethnicities and first languages, careers/job backgrounds (though quite a few in the public sector/healthcare/education), some with long term chronic conditions (actually, thinking about it, that's most of us!), good mix of education levels and interests - the only group we don't mix with are the ones who like to think of themselves as the pinnacle of civilisation, the BJs, Trusses, and co (and even if we had the chance to mix with those types we wouldn't, thanks. I mean, what would we talk about for starters?! Trust funds in the Cayman islands and wallpaper that costs more per roll than many people earn in a month if not a year?! Besides, I've got a slight Northern accent, he might struggle to understand a word I said. In more ways than one ;)).

My friendship group is approximately 50% female, 75% white, 70% heterosexual, 60% British, 90% degree educated, 90% middle class, 90% professional job. Would be interesting to compare against the percentages overall in the UK.

My friendship group is all white.
Out of a group of 12 there are 4 lesbians ( 1 pair are a couple in the group)
1 friend is Scottish
1 friend is half German/Danish.
Most of us were bought up in Lancashire and live within 5 miles from where we were born.

I don't even know anyone who isn't white British and middle class. My DC went to schools with no diversity - there was one non-white child in the whole secondary school , but that changed at uni.
It's not by choice it's just where we live.

Mine is very diverse in terms of

economic status and background
education level
sexuality
mix of catholic, protestant, atheist

But as we are in Scotland its all white, British

My group of 5 closest friends, plus my other 2 closest groups of friends are all mid 30s-early40s, white British middle class professional Christian but non religious, university educated home owners, all but one married, to men in the same bracket. Not specifically seeking each other out, and certainly not avoiding or excluding anyone. But just live and work in a very un-diverse area.

Ethnically, just barely. There are a few people in my social circle who are not white. Most are the children or grandchildren of immigrants from Asian countries.

Most of the people in my sphere are highly educated, upper middle class professionals. We originally met through university and graduate school and later work. We further cemented the insularity by choosing housing that facilitated our children attending the best schools possible. It is technically a homogeneity of finances and education.

No but I'm old, live in a fairly middle class area of the south west that isn't very ethnically diverse at all and don't have a large social circle. All my neighbours are older than me and I'm 65!

What is a fairly middle class area?

Most of my neighbours are academics, doctors or professionals. Therefore we are very varied community, it is not unusual to have up to 10 different nationalities when we get together, and you often can hear 3-4 languages spoken in any given party.

I don’t know if we are a middle class neighbourhood, some of my neighbours are very affluent, many of us are just normal or not exactly well off. I wouldn’t even say that most are white because as white as people can be they all come from different countries and cultural or socio economical backgrounds.

Very ethnically diverse group of middle aged,MC, straight married women, and a couple of widows. No divorcees surprisingly.

I have lots of friends, the only common factor is that (I can think of) is that none of us have a tattoo!
Apart from that, I have friends from a side section of society, I don't have a close lesbian friend and my friend who would have identified as black African rather than Caribbean died a couple of years ago.

I suppose I also like people who don't overthink things and are intelligent - but not all of my friends have been to uni.

Sorry for the disappearance, caught Covid again! I only had it at the start of December and fully vaccinated and again feeling really rubbish.
Yes I meant all types of diversity, background, education, sexuality etc
Our group is fairly diverse in all except sexuality, I think our area is mostly middle class families (I grew up completely working class) and there don’t seem to be any LBGT families that I know at all, which doesn’t seem representative.
More that I was interested that sometimes there is one common thing, like similar aged children or common interests that bind people despite them being very different. Probably not making sense, but it was just a musing.
Anyway sorry not to check in but am feeling really under the weather. Also apologise that my original OP didn’t entirely make sense!

Yes I do - ethnically diverse and socio economically diverse. Sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge when it comes to parenting approaches but mostly its great.

I live in a part of London that used to be very diverse. My parents were immigrants & I didn't actually scold friends with anyone who wasn't a 2nd gen immigrant until uni. However the vast majority of my friends through work are also 2nd gen immigrants.

The area has changed a lot & most people are now not 2nd gen immigrants & I would say largely upper middle class due to house prices.