New Year Honours list: key statistics
How this year’s list breaks down by gender, type of award and other categories
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.
– 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.
– 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.
