Research and analysis

Appendix C: Data tables for analysis of Understanding Society COVID-19 study waves 6 (November 2020) and 7 (January 2021)

Updated 3 September 2021

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

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Table 1.1

Table 1.1: Percentage of people who stated each type of reason why they are likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021, by ethnicity

Ethnicity Individual-focused (%) Family or work-focused (%) Society-focused (%) Other (%) N/A (%) Respondents (weighted) Respondents (unweighted)
Indian 71.8 7.2 15.8 5.2 0.0 134 211
Pakistani 77.0 11.2 10.5 ? ? 74 99
Bangladeshi 65.6 ? ? ? 0.0 40 51
Chinese ? ? ? ? ? 13 27
Asian Other 46.3 ? ? 43.9 0.0 56 49
Black Caribbean 53.7 ? ? ? 0.0 20 42
Black African 78.7 ? ? ? 0.0 36 50
Black Other ? ? ? ? ? 3 6
Mixed White and Black Caribbean 67.1 ? 20.3 ? 0.0 48 46
Mixed White and Black African ? ? ? ? ? 10 10
Mixed White and Asian 53.6 27.3 ? ? 0.0 31 37
Mixed Other ? ? ? ? ? 18 26
White British 60.9 12.2 19.7 ? ? 6064 7071
White Irish 64.0 18.8 14.4 ? ? 62 111
White Gypsy or Irish Traveller ! ! ! ! ! ! !
White Other 49.4 12.0 23.6 14.9 0.0 163 239
Arab ? ? ? ? ? 6 11
Other ? ? ? ? ? 33 27
Unknown 45.2 24.7 26.3 ? ? 84 210
Total 61.0 12.2 19.4 ? ? 6898 8324

Table notes

?: data withheld because the figures are not robust (either because fewer than 30 people from that ethnic group were surveyed, or because the coefficient of variation for that category and ethnic group was more than 30) or for secondary suppression.

!: data withheld for confidentiality – fewer than 5 people from that ethnic group were surveyed.

N/A: data not applicable

These figures have been produced by the Race Disparity Unit (RDU) with data from wave 7 of Understanding Society’s COVID-19 study. The data was collected in January 2021.

Participants were asked to state their main reason why they would get a COVID-19 vaccine. They could only give one reason.

Counts have been weighted using the Understanding Society variable betaindin_xw. Counts have been rounded to the nearest whole number, but percentages and totals have been worked out with unrounded figures.

See Table 1.2 for the reasons used in the survey question.

Table 1.2

Table 1.2: Categorisation of reasons why people are likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine

Reason RDU Category
To stop me catching the coronavirus or getting very ill from it Individual-focused
To allow me to go out of my home safely again Individual-focused
To allow me to get the help or care I need at home Individual-focused
To allow me to return to my workplace Family or work-focused
To allow my social and family life to get back to normal Family or work-focused
To reduce the disruption to my children’s education Family or work-focused
Because the vaccine won’t work unless most people in the UK take it Society-focused
To protect other people from catching the coronavirus Society-focused
Because I am a key worker working with high risk groups Other
Because I take the vaccines offered or recommended to me Other
Other Other
Refusal N/A
Inapplicable N/A
Don’t know N/A

The reasons have been taken from the wave 7 (January 2021) iteration of the vaxwhy question in the Understanding Society COVID study. The reasons have been categorised by RDU analysts

 Table 2

Table 2: Percentage of people who showed each type of vaccine sentiment in January 2021, out of those who said in November 2020 that they were ‘unlikely’ or ‘very unlikely’ to get a COVID-19 vaccine, by ethnicity

Positive (%) Negative (%) Don’t know (%) N/A (%) Respondents (weighted) Respondents (unweighted)
Indian 87.6 ? ? 0.0 21 77
Pakistani 35.1 64.9 0.0 0.0 29 60
Bangladeshi 40.8 59.2 0.0 0.0 38 32
Chinese ? ? ? ? 8 10
Asian Other ? ? ? ? 4 12
Black Caribbean 40.1 56.6 ? ? 42 52
Black African 71.6 28.4 0.0 0.0 25 37
Black Other ? ? ? ? 1 4
Mixed White and Black Caribbean ? ? ? ? 26 18
Mixed White and Black African ? ? ? ? 2 4
Mixed White and Asian ? ? ? ? 3 8
Mixed Other ? ? ? ? 1 7
White British 67.2 31.2 ? ? 971 1070
White Irish ? ? ? ? 9 15
White Gypsy or Irish Traveller N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
White Other 50.3 48.6 ? ? 51 74
Arab ? ? ? ? 0 5
Other ? ? ? ? 9 5
Unknown 53.6 46.4 0.0 0.0 29 45
Total 62.4 36.2 ? ? 1270 1535

Table notes

?: data withheld because the figures are not robust (either because fewer than 30 people from that ethnic group were surveyed, or because the coefficient of variation for that category and ethnic group was more than 30) or for secondary suppression.

!: data withheld for confidentiality – fewer than 5 people from that ethnic group were surveyed.

N/A: data not applicable

Respondents with ‘positive’ sentiment said they:

  • already had a dose of the vaccine
  • booked an appointment for the vaccine
  • were ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to accept a vaccine when it was offered to them

Respondents with ‘negative’ sentiment said they were ‘unlikely’ or ‘very unlikely’ to accept a vaccine when it was offered to them.

Sentiment is shown as ‘N/A’ if data is missing, inapplicable or refused.

These figures have been produced by RDU with data from wave 6 (November 2020) and wave 7 (January 2021) of Understanding Society’s COVID-19 study.

Counts have been weighted using the Understanding Society variable betaindin_xw. Counts have been rounded to the nearest whole number, but percentages and totals have been worked out with unrounded figures.

Table 3

Table 3: Percentage of people who stated each type of reason why they are likely to get a COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021, out of people who moved from being ‘unlikely’ or ‘very unlikely’ to get a vaccine in November 2020 to ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to get a vaccine in January 2021, by ethnicity

Ethnicity Individual-focused (%) Family or work-focused (%) Society-focused (%) Other (%) N/A (%) Total (weighted) Total (unweighted)
Indian 86.2 ? ? ? 0.0 16 52
Pakistani and Bangladeshi 64.9 ? ? ? 0.0 26 44
Asian Other ? ? ? ? ? 3 10
Black 81.2 ? ? ? 0.0 23 33
Mixed ? ? ? ? ? 3 12
White British 44.1 17.4 25.9 12.6 0.0 570 605
White Other 49.8 ? ? ? 0.0 29 40
Other ? ? ? ? ? 1 4
Unknown ? ? ? ? ? 15 23
Total 46.8 18.3 22.7 12.2 0.0 686 823

Table notes

?: data withheld because the figures are not robust (either because fewer than 30 people from that ethnic group were surveyed, or because the coefficient of variation for that category and ethnic group was more than 30) or for secondary suppression.

!: data withheld for confidentiality – fewer than 5 people from that ethnic group were surveyed.

N/A: data not applicable

‘White Other’ includes people from the White Irish, White Gypsy or Irish Traveller, and White Other ethnic groups.

‘Asian Other’ includes people from the Chinese and Asian Other ethnic groups.

These figures have been produced by RDU with data from wave 6 (November 2020) and wave 7 (January 2021) of Understanding Society’s COVID-19 study.

Participants were asked to state their main reason why they would get a COVID-19 vaccine. They could only give one reason.

Counts have been weighted using the Understanding Society variable betaindin_xw. Counts have been rounded to the nearest whole number, but percentages and totals have been worked out with unrounded figures.

See Table 1.2 for the reasons used in the survey question.

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