Michelle vonAhn, Ruth Lupton and Dick Wiggins

Population, language, ethnicity and socio‐economic aspects of education

“The aim of the fellowship is to increase understanding of the potential of administrative data on language and ethnicity to contribute to the effective design, delivery and evaluation of public services.”

Updating “Multilingual Capital”

• Published 2000using data from 1999

• Ward and borough levelmaps of language spoken at home

London’s diversity307 language categories in PLASC data

English or believed to be English range from 25.8% in Tower Hamlets to 94.0% in Havering

Numbers of languages range from 20 in the City of London to 203 in Newham (29.5% English)

PLASC data1.1m records for pupils in state schools in LondonCleaned for missing languages and geography = 1.07m records (3.5% loss)Geographically referenced for mappingVariable data collection with categories of “Other than English”, “Believed to be other than English” and “Other language” used

Choice of geographyLower level Super Output AreasAbout 1500 people per area

4765 LSOAs in London

Middle level Super Output AreasAbout 7500 people per area

983 MSOAs in London

EAL pupils, LSOA

EAL pupils, MSOA

Capturing linguistic diversityBy visualisation, with mappingUsing Simpson’s Diversity Index – a measure of richness and equitabilityThe formula for Simpson’s Index is: D   = 

where

D is Simpson's Diversity Index

S is the total number of languages speakers represented in a given area

P(i) is the size of the given language speakers as a proportion of the total population in the study area

∑=

s

1i

2P(i)

1

Raw PLASC data (205 categories)

Newham LSOAs

ONS Census 3 (159 categories)

Newham LSOAs

ONS Census 2 (59 categories)

Newham LSOAs

ONS Census 1 (25 categories)

Newham LSOAs

Multilingual Capital (42 categories)

Newham LSOAs

Languages in PLASC 2007

PLASC Main code

PLASCSubset code

MLC language group ONS Level 1 ONS Level 2 ONS Level 3

Acholi ACL Nilotic Nilo-Saharan Eastern Sudanic Acholi

Afar-Saho AFA Cushitic Afro-Asiatic Cushitic Afar and Saho

Afrikaans AFK Germanic Germanic West Germanic Afrikaans

Akan (Fante) AKA AKAF Aframic Niger-Congo Volta-Congo Akan

Akan (Twi/Asante) AKA AKAT Aframic Niger-Congo Volta-Congo Akan

Akan/Twi-Fante AKA Aframic Niger-Congo Volta-Congo Akan

Albanian/Shqip ALB Albanic Albanian Albanian Albanian

Alur ALU Nilotic Nilo-Saharan Eastern Sudanic Alur

Ambo (Kwanyama) OAM OAMK Bantuic Niger-Congo Volta-Congo Kwanyama

Ambo (Ndonga) OAM OAMN Bantuic Niger-Congo Volta-Congo Ndonga

Ambo/Oshiwambo OAM Bantuic Niger-Congo Volta-Congo Ndonga

Amharic AMR Semitic Semitic Amharic

Anyi-Baule AYB Aframic Niger-Congo Volta-Congo Anyin and Baoulé

Arabic ARA Semitic Afro-Asiatic Semitic Arabic

Arabic (Algeria) ARA ARAG Semitic Afro-Asiatic Semitic Arabic Algerian

Arabic (Any Other) ARA ARAA Semitic Afro-Asiatic Semitic Arabic

Arabic (Iraq) ARA ARAI Semitic Afro-Asiatic Semitic Arabic Judeo-Iraqi

Arabic (Morocco) ARA ARAM Semitic Afro-Asiatic Semitic Arabic Judeo-Moroccan

Arabic (Sudan) ARA ARAS Semitic Afro-Asiatic Semitic Arabic Sudanese

Arabic (Yemen) ARA ARAY Semitic Afro-Asiatic Semitic Arabic Judeo-Yemeni

Armenian ARM Armenic Armenian Armenian Armenian

Assyrian/Aramaic ASR Aramaic Afro-Asiatic Semitic Assyrian

Azeri AZE Trans-Asia Turkic Azerbaijani Azerbaijani

Language classifications

Proof of conceptData matching

GP register of patients

Proof of conceptData matching

GP register of patients

LLPG addresses

LLPG addresses

Proof of conceptData matching

GP register of patients

LLPG addresses

LLPG addresses

Council Tax

Housing benefit

Electoral RegisterPLASC

Proof of conceptExploring the issues of data sharing

Legal

Technical

Identifying data sets that can be linked for understanding differences in socio‐economic status in relation to language

Social housing

Housing benefit

Council tax benefit

Proof of conceptLanguage

PLASC is the only source of data for this but doesn’t cover all the population (excluded households without children in state schools)Partial data is available for most individual pupils without a specific language code Estimations of language spoken based on surname to be explored

EthnicityPLASC is also the best source for ethnicity, with patchy coverage in administrative data

Planned outputsA series of language maps for LondonGuidance on data linkage

Technical issuesData qualityEthical and legal issues

Proof of concept for studying socio‐economic status and language

Barriers and obstaclesGuidance on how to overcome theseWorkshops