AbstractThis paper reviews the ways in which diversity and inequality are represented in the major sources of health data in Britain. It examines how identities linked to disability, ‘race’, class and sexuality are represented in official statistics and national surveys. The paper argues that (1) the methods of data‐collection and data‐analysis result in the exclusion of minority group experiences and (2) the measures of social position mask and misrepresent dimensions of inequality that the new social movements have sought to make visible. Illustrations of these processes ar