Equality, Race, and Disability Evidence Units

To understand inequality in Wales, our strategy emphasises the need for evidence to improve in:

• availability
• quality
• granularity
• accessibility

Improving evidence enables decision makers to develop better informed policies. This can help to improve research and statistics published across the Welsh Government. The end goal being to reduce the inequality experienced by people with protected characteristics.

We add to existing statistics and research by addressing long-standing challenges with evidence in this area. 

We provide:

• guidance to analysts working on policy research and statistics to help apply equality considerations
• support to make cross-cutting equality plans more evidence-driven, such as: the:
  • Strategic Equality Plan
  • Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan
  • LGBTQ+ Action Plan
  • Advancing Gender Inequality Action Plan

Our evidence plan is agreed periodically to reflect the current equality priorities. Our plan is also responsive to strategic priorities that arise.

Welsh Government produced evidence

The Welsh Government publish a wide range of official statistics, research and data. This supports our policy development and decision-making.  It provides insight into the experiences of people in Wales. It also helps identify potential impacts of policies on groups with protected characteristics.

The Wellbeing of Wales report provides an annual update on progress towards achieving our 7 wellbeing goals. It shows progress against 50 national indicators with other data such as education, economy, health and poverty.

The report includes a chapter on the wellbeing goal ‘A More Equal Wales’, where much of the equality information is shown. Information for protected characteristics can also be found within other chapters of the report.

The Review of Welsh Government equality data sources and outputs was published in January 2025. It can be used to help identify potential evidence sources in different topic areas.

Evidence published by the Equality, Race and Disability Evidence Units

Race

• Ethnic group differences in health, housing, education and economic status in Wales (Census 2021)
• Anti-racist Wales Action Plan: Impact Measurement Framework
• The Anti-racist Wales Action plan: measuring its impact on people’s lives
• Anti-racist Wales Action Plan interactive dashboard: 2026
• Exploring Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women’s experiences of workplace sexual harassment

Disability

• Disabled people’s outcomes in health, housing, education, and economic status (Census 2021)
• Exploration of two recommendations proposed by the Disability Rights Taskforce to help disabled people
• Social model of disability
• Barriers to employment for disabled people

LGBTQ+

• Sexual orientation and gender identity differences in health, education and economic status (Census 2021)
• LGBTQ+ Action Plan for Wales: evaluability assessment

Cross cutting

• Review of diversity in the public sector workforce and boards in Wales
• Review of Welsh Government equality data sources and outputs
• National Survey for Wales: equality data review
• Census 2021 population data for equality characteristics by age, sex and local authority

Evidence produced by other organisations

Wider equalities evidence is also produced by a range of organisations across Wales and the UK. This includes devolved bodies, inspectorates and other producers of official statistics. 

Although not comprehensive, these organisations may provide a broader picture of experiences. This includes inequalities affecting groups with protected characteristics:

• ADR Wales
• Children’s Commissioner for Wales
• Equality and Human Rights Commission (including the Equality and Human Rights Monitor 2023: Is Wales Fairer? report)
• Estyn
• Future Generations Commissioner for Wales
• Health and Care Research Wales Evidence Centre
• Medr
• Office for National Statistics
• Older People’s Commissioner for Wales
• Senedd Research
• UK Data Service
• Wales Centre for Public Policy

See our published list of priorities and our progress updates:

• Progress update (June 2025)
• Progress update (September 2024)

We are committed to improving the availability of equalities evidence. If you have any feedback then email the Equality Evidence Unit.