The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has just published a raft of research on income and ethnicity which shows that South Asian Islamic people living in the UK are likely to be hugely poorer than average, and that generally the correlation between ethnicity and poor economic outcomes in the UK are as discriminatory as we might imagine.

A couple of examples of difference:

Individual poverty rates by ethnic group have White at 19%, Indian at 28%, and Pakistani or Bangladeshi at 59%. Black or Black British is at 38%, but there are differences within this. Black Caribbean is at 30%, but Black non-Caribbean at 46%. The percentages for working age adults for all groups are slightly lower, but not by much.

And when looked at through the lens of child poverty, the story is starker. If you take child poverty rates after housing costs, White groups are at 25% (already one of the highest figures in W. Europe, according to UNICEF); Indian (again) 32%; Black Caribbean 37%; Black African 56%; Pakistani 60%; and Bangladeshi 74%.

One could observe that politicians who wish to see greater social and political cohesion might want to address issues of economic cohesion as well.

The full report is downloadable.