Update on research into gender identity data in Census 2021 - ONS says no issues found

[IwantToRetire]

We have now published our first research report, which examines whether the information that people provided on the Census was coded and processed accurately. The report of this investigation ‘Collecting and processing Census 2021 data on gender identity’ concludes that 94% of respondents to the Census answered the question and there is no evidence to suggest that the published results were not coded or processed accurately.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/updateonresearchintogenderidentitydataincensus2021

There's an article in the DM. I suspect it's broadly similar (may contain house prices 😁).

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12724857/ONS-confidence-data-showing-262-000-trans-people-England-Wales-despite-admitting-census-question-misunderstood-poor-English-FIVE-times-likelier-state-gender-didnt-match-birth-sex.html?ico=related-replace

The ONS ...<snigger>...the ONS are saying that more people with low fluency in English are <chuckle> saying that they're trans, because <chortle> they're all trans identifying refugees!! 🤣

There's also an article in the Independent, but from that I cant make out that anything new has happened.

Have I missed something?

ie why are they now reporting what was reported some month ago?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/census-transgender-data-ons-gender-identity-b2443686.html

I can only find this on the ONS web site and was in October

Exchange of letters between the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on the topic of census gender identity statistics and a report from OSR published today (9 October 2023). https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/exchangeoflettersbetweenosrandons

Ooh - does 'exchange of letters' mean they got a dressing down?

The ONS seem to have released a new report. I agree though, it does seem a bit reheated.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/genderidentity/articles/qualityofcensus2021genderidentitydata/2023-11-13

The ONS seem to have released a new report.

Thanks - I just looked at Press Releases, never thought to look at what seems to be ongoing work on the last Census.

https://twitter.com/ONS/status/1722186281461907720

ONS are getting a pasting on twitter mainly along the lines of 'We told you so'

What a waste of time and money.

Not just the processing…

But also….

and also

My favourite caveat - self-selecting, indeed.

They're desperate now. I'm embarrassed for they/them.

It's so embarrassing. Not to mention reckless: spending on something that was predictably way off, where it could have been avoided and lots of people told them the way to avoid errors.

Yet they seem nonplussed.

At least they are making it clear that the input to the questions provided is a total mess, and they had to make largely arbitrary decisions about what people were likely to have meant in context, despite other research showing the context is actively alien to a huge chunk of the population.

My favourite caveat - self-selecting, indeed.

Trans migrants might have chosen the U.K. because of our greater civil rights and cultural acceptance?

I thought the U.K. was "TERF island" and someone claimed asylum in New Zealand on that basis? Who's going to tell them?

Thing is in other statistical areas (health) the ONS have a whole massive project to try to achieve statistical coherence across all the different bodies generating health data so that they can be compared and understood clearly.
https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2023/11/01/creating-a-coherent-picture-of-health-in-the-uk/

almost as though ONS actually DO know perfectly well that muddling up data is a terrible thing to do for health and public service planning or just trying to understand the population.

I just feel really sad that ONS lacked the management spine or confidence in getting any robust government political backing to say no, or were sufficiently packed with useful idiots and campaigners, that they ruined such an essential dataset as the bloody national census. It’s heartbreaking.