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The subgroup started its work by identifying a number of common gaps and challenges in EU Member States and Norway, including the lack of a coordinated approach for equality data collection and use; insufficient resources and awareness of the importance of collecting equality data; incomplete identification of population groups at risk of discrimination due to overreliance on proxies; and insufficient consultation with relevant stakeholders in the design and implementation of equality data collection.
The subgroup has developed the following products to support Member States:
Acknowledging the need for more and better information related to sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC), the European Commission in 2020 invited the FRA and the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) ‘[…] to continue providing Member States with technical assistance and methodological support on the design and implementation of data-collection exercises on LGBTIQ people both on single and multiple grounds. To support European Commission’s efforts to implement a consistent approach on equality data collection, the Subgroup agreed to develop practical guidance for Member States to improve the collection of data disaggregated by sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics.
The guidance note begins by setting out the challenges, data-protection rules, and key ethical considerations when collecting and using SOGIESC data (Section 2). The main body of this guidance summarises two sets of principles for collecting and using equality data based on SOGIESC. The first set of 7 principles are general/cross-cutting in nature, and are discussed in Section 3. The second set of 4 principles provide practical guidance on how to collect data on SOGIESC, and are discussed in Section 4. The second set of practical principles includes several examples of past surveys to illustrate possible approaches.
Responding to the EU anti-racism action plan 2020-25 and calls by other groups to improve the availability of equality data disaggregated by racial or ethnic origin, the Subgroup on equality data agreed to develop a practical guidance note.
The 2021 Guidance note (available in 22 languages) aims to:
The 2018 Guidelines on improving the collection and use of equality data (available in 22 languages) feature a number of concrete institutional and operational steps that EU Member States can undertake to enhance the availability and quality of equality data and to promote its effective use in developing evidence-based equality and non-discrimination policies.
The guidelines are divided into:
As a complement to these guidelines, the subgroup prepared a diagnostic mapping tool that EU Member States can use to assess the availability of equality data collected at national level and a compendium of practices that can provide inspiration when implementing the guidelines.
The Compendium of Practices on Equality Data aims to provide inspiration to EU Member States when implementing the guidelines on improving the collection and use of equality data. It collates practices of Member States on equality data, providing information on the background and rationale underlying the practice, the way it was implemented, the main output, technical information, as well as a contact address for further information. The guidelines of the compendium have been updated to include selected guidelines from the Guidance note on the collection and use of equality data based on racial or ethnic origin, and the Guidance note on the collection and use of data for LGBTIQ equality.
The diagnostic mapping tool can be used by Member States to map existing sources of equality data and identify gaps in data related to specific grounds of discrimination and/or areas of life, as recommended by Guideline no. 1. The information gathered through the mapping tool can also be used as a basis for setting up a data hub on equality and non-discrimination, as recommended by Guideline no. 3.
The European handbook on equality data, and the Guidelines on improving the collection and use of equality data define ‘equality data’ as any piece of information that is useful for the purposes of describing, analysing, reasoning about and decision-making on the state of equality. The information may be quantitative or qualitative in nature. It could include aggregate data that reflect inequalities and their causes or effects in societies.
Equality statistics can be compiled from multiple data sources, such as population censuses, administrative registers, household and individual surveys, victimisation surveys, and attitudinal surveys. Other sources could encompass complaints data (including aggregate profiles of complainants and offenders, for example), criminal justice data (including court statistics and data on outcomes of court cases, as well as compensation offered/sanctions applied, for example), as well as other avenues of data collection, encompassing discrimination testing, diversity monitoring by employers, CSO and service providers, or data related to artificial intelligence, including training data, data analysed by AI and data on AI outputs.
Data disaggregated by certain personal characteristics – including age, sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or being intersex/ having a variation of sex characteristics – can be used for producing equality data, at an aggregated level for statistical purposes, if this is done voluntarily, in full compliance with legal provisions and the corresponding exceptions.
