Understanding the harmonisation of LPS ethnic group variables

Last modified: 23 Jan 2026

LPS have different approaches to recording participants’ ethnic group, with differing levels of specificity. UK LLC has harmonised data on ethnic group into three, hierarchical, levels

Introduction

The majority of LPS contributing to UK LLC have included some information about their participants’ ethnic group. UK LLC has harmonised the ethnicity data provided by LPS and made it available to researchers as part of the UK LLC-managed demographic datasets. These can be requested as part of a project application or amendment.

Because of the different ethnic groupings used by each LPS, UK LLC has harmonised data about ethnic group into six, five and two categories (summarised in Table 1). Harmonised ethnicity information is provided for each LPS at the most granular level available.

Table 1: summary of harmonised ethnicity variables

Six categories	Five categories	Two categories
White	White	White
Black	Black	All other ethnic groups
South Asian	Asian	All other ethnic groups
Other Asian	Asian	All other ethnic groups
Mixed	Mixed	All other ethnic groups
Other	Other	All other ethnic groups

N.B. The hierarchical nature of the harmonised ethnicity variables ensures that the two category variable and be derived from the five categories, and the five categories from the six.

The available levels of ethnicity data, and any discrepancies, are summarised in Table 2.

Table 2: availability of ethnicity data for each LPS

LPS name	Categories	Notes
ALSPAC	6
BCS70	6
BIB	6
ELSA	2
EPICN	2
EXCEED	6
FENLAND	6
GENSCOT	5 & 6	Two versions of the ethnicity variable (one from 2020, one from 2006-2011)
GLAD	5
MCS	6
NCDS58	6
NEXTSTEP	5
NICOLA		No ethnicity data uploaded to the UK LLC TRE
NIRHBIO_COPING	5	No ‘other’ option
NSHD46		No ethnicity data uploaded to the UK LLC TRE
SABRE	6	Original data includes the category ‘East African Asian’ - harmonised as ‘Other Asian’. No ‘other’ option.
TEDS	6
TRACKC19	6
TWINSUK	6	Original data includes the category ‘East Asian’ - harmonised as ‘Other Asian’.
UKHLS	6

This spreadsheet summarises the ethnic group categories used by each LPS and how these have been harmonised by UK LLC. It also shows how UK LLC has harmonised ethnic categories which do not fit exactly into UK LLC’s groupings.