2023 NETS Responses Characteristics of Learners

• Age: 66% of learners were under 35.
• Disability: Learners reporting a disability increased from 6% in 2022 to 13% in 2023.
• Gender: Learners identifying as female were the highest respondent group (65%), male at 30%, chose not to disclose at 4% and less than 1% of learners identified as non-binary or did not identify with any of the listed genders.
• Marital Status: 47% of learners had never been married/in a civil partnership and 34% are married/in a civil partnership.
• Ethnicity: White (53%), Asian (19%), Black (10%), Mixed (3.5%), Arabic (2.5%), Other (1%), and Chinese (1%).
• Nationality: 72% of learners were from the UK/Ireland with 23% from the rest of the world (ROW) and Europe.
• Religion: 36% selected “No religious belief” followed by “Christian” at 29%.
• Sexuality: 7% of learners described themselves as gay, lesbian or bisexual

Many of the 2023 NETS respondents were Postgraduate Doctors in Training (55.75%, 21,229) and represented the highest proportion of ethnically diverse learners alongside dental undergraduate and postgraduate learners. Nursing, the second highest responding professional group (14.74%, 5,612) represented the highest Black learner response rate at 23.08% (1,290).

13.43% of respondents (5,110) selected that they had a disability. For the first time on NETS, respondents were able to select a disability type: physical, mental health, and/or neurodiversity. Neurodiversity and mental health were the most common types of disability (2,348) selected.