The share of people who answered that they were white in the census is decreasing
Two of Britain’s constituent regions, England and Wales, have seen continued declines in the proportion of their population identifying as “white”, with less than half of people identifying as Christian, according to the latest figures from last year’s UK census. of the population, cited by Reuters.
The proportion of people in both areas who said they were white in 2021 fell to 81.7 per cent, compared to 86 per cent in the previous census, in 2011. Meanwhile, Britons in England and Wales described ethnicities such as Asian, Asian-British or Asian-Welsh rose to 9.3 per cent from 7.5 per cent in 2011.
Over the same period, the population of the two British areas describing themselves as “black, black British, black Welsh, Caribbean or African” rose to 4 per cent, up from 3.3 per cent who answered similarly a decade ago.
Britain’s Office for National Statistics said changes in ethnic composition reflected “different patterns of ageing, fertility, mortality and migration” and possibly changes in the way people define themselves.
The data also shows that for the period 2011-2022 there has been a particularly sharp fall in the proportion of the population of England and Wales who identify as Christians, from 59.3 per cent to 46.2 per cent respectively.
The share of people who do not profess any religion has also seen a large increase – from 25.2 percent in 2011 to 37.2 percent in 2021.
After Christianity (46.2 per cent), the second most common religion in England and Wales was Islam (6.5 per cent, up 1.6 percentage points from 2011) followed by Hinduism (1.7 per per cent), the Sikh religion (0.9 per cent) and Judaism (0.5 per cent).
Of those who described themselves as “white”, those who also said they were “English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British” fell to 74.4 per cent last year, down from a decade ago 80.5 percent.
Among people of Asian ethnicity, the number of Indians, Pakistanis or Bangladeshis increased between 2011 and 2021, while the share of people of Chinese origin remained stable. Fewer blacks described themselves as having Caribbean ancestry, while the most said they had Nigerian, Somali and Ghanaian ancestry.
London remains the most ethnically diverse region in England and Wales. Just 36.8 per cent of the capital’s residents describe themselves as “white: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British”, compared to 44.9 per cent in 2011.
UK census data is not available as the Scottish government postponed the census for a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
