3.2 Ethnicity

Inmate ethnicity data was obtained directly from IOMS. This information is collected by Corrections staff in an interview which forms part of an induction process; what is recorded is simply the inmate’s self-identification of ethnicity. An inmate may identify with more than one ethnicity – there are in fact 230 ethnicity options available. Those who choose more than one ethnicity are also asked to rank these in order of “priority”. There were 1,261 sentenced inmates who identified with more than one ethnicity; when available ethnicity options are grouped as European, Māori, Pacific or “Other”, most (91%) sentenced inmates identified with ethnicities within one of these four groupings. For more details of groupings see section 15.10 Preferred ethnicity and combined ethnicity

Table 3-2 Ethnic group of sentenced inmates

Ethnic group	Female		Male		Total
	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
European	82	31.3%	1725	35.7%	1807	35.3%
European and Māori	16	6.1%	170	3.5%	186	3.7%
Māori	133	50.8%	2196	45.4%	2329	45.7%
Māori and Pacific	4	1.5%	82	1.7%	86	1.7%
Pacific Peoples	13	5.0%	472	9.8%	485	9.5%
Other (incl. Asian)	14	5.3%	188	3.9%	505	4.0%
Total	262	100.0%	4833	100.0%	5095	100.0%

Percentages may not add to 100 because of rounding. The ethnic groups used above are as for previous census reports however it should be noted that this format masks much of the cultural diversity recorded by the inmates. In the categories “European and Māori” and “Māori and Pacific” no importance is attached to the Order of ethnicity used in the group title.