ABSTRACT
Before the 1991 Census, there was no accurate count of the minority ethnic population of Scotland. Census data were limited to details of the country of birth of persons enumerated and the size of the minority ethnic population was estimated from counts of the numbers of persons bom in the New Commonwealth or Pakistan (NCWP). This measure was problematic, firstly because it included white ex-colonials and children of service personnel, bom in the NCWP but who did not belong to the relevant ethnic groups. Secondly, and more importantly, it excluded children bom in Scotland of immigrant parents and this limitation became more serious with the passage of time from earlier periods of immigration in the 1950s and 1960s. There was therefore an increasingly significant underestimate of the minority ethnic population.
