Demographic explanations for changes in ethnic residential segregation across the life course

Albert Sabater, Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics
Nissa Finney, University of Manchester

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it provides an analysis of the level and direction of change on ethnic residential segregation by taking into consideration a life-stage perspective. Methodologically, the approach takes into account the importance of age and other aspects of the life course as a new window to examine the changing levels of ethnic segregation over time. The second part of the paper examines these results in more detail, exploring changes in segregation for sub-national areas and ethnic group separately. Since the segregation indices do not describe the various factors which contribute to local population change such as migration patterns, ethnic residential segregation is examined alongside population movement at different life-stages. For this purpose the paper uses census-based information for small areas linking the 1991 and 2001 censuses in England and Wales.