The PR and Communications Census 2018 results suggest that for the first time since the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) started to record the industry’s diversity, the prevalence of white British practitioners has fallen below the ONS UK Census' national average of 80.5% white British people.

The PRCA has launched the PR and Communications Census 2018. The results reveal a significant improvement in regards to diversity in the PR and communications industry, noting a major statistic improvement in comparison to the results of the last census, conducted in 2016.

Pema Seely, chairman of the PRCA Diversity Network, and senior account director of M&C Saatchi PR, says, “It’s great to see progress, no matter how small. I hope with the introduction of the ‘Diversity and Inclusion Guidelines’ earlier this year it will help our industry to continue to change and evolve. As I’ve said before, if we want to attract the best talent we need to create modern, inclusive environments – diversity is essential to creating it.” 

Despite white British practitioners maintaining their dominance, the statistics show a decrease of 15%, while white practitioners in general have fallen from 91% to 89%. This doesn’t translate in a single ethnic group growing considerably, it does however increase the presence of non-white ethnic groups to 9%, from 7% in 2016.

Francis Ingham, director general of PRCA says, “Our numbers show that the industry’s determined efforts to mirror more closely the people it deals with have produced results over the past two years, and that should be welcomed. However, the industry must be more proactive. We launched the Diversity and Inclusion Guidelines to give the industry a roadmap and the data in the census shows that we have a long way to go. 2018 will be a defining year for diversity and we are calling on the industry to do much more.”

The census has also shown that younger PR professionals are more likely to be ethnically diverse, with a decrease of 3% of the people between the age of 25 and 34 that identify as white. Furthermore, the amount of PR practitioners who have a disability has doubled, reaching 4%.

The PR and communications sector is still primarily female, with the numbers going up from 64% in 2016 to 66% this year.

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