New Year Honours list: key statistics

Here are some of the key statistics about the 2020 New Year Honours list:

– A total of 1,097 people have received an award. This is the lowest number for a New Year Honours list since 2012, when the total was 984 and which was just before the British Empire Medal (BEM) was re-introduced to the UK.

– 11% of recipients consider themselves to have a disability (under the Equality Act 2010). This is the highest proportion for this category since numbers on disability started to be reported for New Year Honours lists in 2016.

– 9.1% of successful candidates come from a BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) background, down from 12.0% in the 2019 New Year Honours list.

– 3.3% of recipients identified as being LGBT+, down from 5.0% in the 2019 list.

– 556 women are recognised in the honours list, representing just over half (50.7%) of the total. This is the second highest proportion of women recipients on a New Year Honours list. The highest on record is 51.0% in 2014.

– 72% of recipients have undertaken outstanding work in their communities either in a voluntary or paid capacity, up slightly on the equivalent figure in 2019 (70%).

– 941 candidates have received either a BEM, MBE or OBE: 315 the BEM, 397 the MBE and 229 the OBE.

– Two people become Companions of Honour: singer-songwriter Sir Elton John and historian Sir Keith Thomas.