Table 1: Demographics of Virus Watch study participants at base line recruitment compared to the ONS CIS and 2021 Census.
Characteristic |
Virus Watch Participants N (%) |
ONS CIS N (%) |
Population of England from ONS (%) |
|
All |
58,628 |
535,121 |
- |
|
Age group (years)* |
|
|
|
|
0-14 |
6,823 (12%) |
- |
17% |
|
15-24 |
4,047 (6.9%) |
- |
12% |
|
25-44 |
11,725 (20%) |
- |
26% |
|
45-64 |
19,657 (34%) |
- |
26% |
|
65+ |
16,376 (28%) |
- |
19% |
|
Age group (years)* |
|
|
|
|
2-11 |
4,617 (8%) |
33,507 (6%) |
13% |
|
12-16 |
2,623 (5%) |
29,147 (5%) |
6% |
|
17-24 |
3,000 (5%) |
35,403 (7%) |
9% |
|
25-34 |
4,973 (9%) |
52,359 (10%) |
14% |
|
35-49 |
10,406 (18%) |
103,068 (19%) |
20% |
|
50-69 |
22,789 (39%) |
176,814 (33%) |
25% |
|
70+ |
9,589 (17%) |
104,823 (20%) |
14% |
|
Sex (including derived)** |
|
|
|
|
Male |
26,274 (45%) |
252,047 (47%) |
49% |
|
Female |
31,533 (54%) |
283,074 (53%) |
51% |
|
Other/Missing/Prefer not to say |
821 (1.4%) |
- |
- |
|
Ethnicity |
|
|
|
|
White |
43,968 (75%) |
493,026 (92%) |
86% |
|
Asian/Asian British |
3,155 (5.4%) |
22,128 (4%) |
7% |
|
Black/ African/Caribbean/Black British |
493 (0.8%) |
5,476 (1%) |
3% |
|
Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups |
998 (1.7%) |
9,598 (2%) |
2% |
|
Other ethnic groups |
288 (0.5%) |
4,804 (1%) |
2% |
|
Missing |
9,726 (17%) |
89 (0.01%) |
- |
|
Region |
|
|
|
|
North East |
2,528 (4.3%) |
- |
5% |
|
North West |
5,572 (9.5%) |
- |
12% |
|
Yorkshire and The Humber |
3,035 (5.2%) |
- |
9% |
|
East Midlands |
4,945 (8.4%) |
- |
8% |
|
West Midlands |
3,020 (5.2%) |
- |
10% |
|
East of England |
10,545 (18%) |
- |
11% |
|
London |
9,083 (15%) |
- |
15% |
|
South East |
9,845 (17%) |
- |
15% |
|
South West |
3,956 (6.7%) |
- |
10% |
|
Wales |
1,532 (2.6%) |
- |
5% |
|
Missing |
4,567 (7.8%) |
- |
- |
ONS CIS data obtained from Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey: quality and methodology information (QMI) [1]. England population estimates from ONS data for age, sex and region drawn from
Population and household estimates, England and Wales: Census 2021, while data for ethnicity was drawn from Ethnic group, England and Wales: Census 2021
*Different categorization of age groups were used in Virus Watch and ONS CIS; **Sex at birth was self-reported. If missing, sex was obtained via data linkage or derived via name- gender matching based on US names from 1930-2015 https://data.world/howarder/gender-by-name