According to the 2021 Census, London was the most ethnically diverse region in England and Wales – 63.2% of residents identified with an ethnic minority group.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the population of London by race. It includes the population of London across racial categories (excluding ethnicity) as identified by the Census Bureau. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of London across relevant racial categories.

Key observations

The percent distribution of London population by race (across all racial categories recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau): 89.24% are white, 1.70% are Black or African American, 0.23% are American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.86% are Asian, 0.02% are Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, 0.15% are some other race and 6.79% are multiracial.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Racial categories include:

• White
• Black or African American
• American Indian and Alaska Native
• Asian
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
• Some other race
• Two or more races (multiracial)

Variables / Data Columns

• Race: This column displays the racial categories (excluding ethnicity) for the London
• Population: The population of the racial category (excluding ethnicity) in the London is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the percentage distribution of each race as a proportion of London total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for London Population by Race & Ethnicity. You can refer the same here

This statistic shows the distribution of ethnic groups of Inner London, United Kingdom (UK) at the time of the 2011 National Census. 'White' is the largest group, at 57.2 percent of the population, followed by 'Black / African / Caribbean / Black British,' and Asian / Asian British.'

This statistic shows the distribution of ethnic groups of Outer London, United Kingdom (UK), at the time of the 2011 National Census. 'White' is by far the largest group, at **** percent of the population, followed by 'Asian / Asian British' at **** percent.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the population of London by race. It includes the population of London across racial categories (excluding ethnicity) as identified by the Census Bureau. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of London across relevant racial categories.

Key observations

The percent distribution of London population by race (across all racial categories recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau): 94.59% are white, 1.10% are Black or African American, 1.29% are Asian, 0.77% are some other race and 2.26% are multiracial.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates.

Racial categories include:

• White
• Black or African American
• American Indian and Alaska Native
• Asian
• Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
• Some other race
• Two or more races (multiracial)

Variables / Data Columns

• Race: This column displays the racial categories (excluding ethnicity) for the London
• Population: The population of the racial category (excluding ethnicity) in the London is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the percentage distribution of each race as a proportion of London total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for London Population by Race & Ethnicity. You can refer the same here

In 2011, 87.2 percent of the total population of the United Kingdom were white British. A positive net migration in recent years combined with the resultant international relationships following the wide-reaching former British Empire has contributed to an increasingly diverse population. Varied ethnic backgrounds Black British citizens, with African and/or African-Caribbean ancestry, are the largest ethnic minority population, at three percent of the total population. Indian Britons are one of the largest overseas communities of the Indian diaspora and make up 2.3 percent of the total UK population. Pakistani British citizens, who make up almost two percent of the UK population, have one of the highest levels of home ownership in Britain. Racism in the United Kingdom Though it has decreased in comparison to the previous century, the UK has seen an increase in racial prejudice during the first decade and a half of this century. Racism and discrimination continues to be part of daily life for Britain’s ethnic minorities, especially in terms of work, housing, and health issues. Moreover, the number of hate crimes motivated by race reported since 2012 has increased, and in 2017/18, there were 3,368 recorded offenses of racially or religiously aggravated assault with injury, almost a thousand more than in 2013/14.

Number of people belonging to a visible minority group as defined by the Employment Equity Act and, if so, the visible minority group to which the person belongs. The Employment Equity Act defines visible minorities as 'persons, other than Aboriginal peoples, who are non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour.' The visible minority population consists mainly of the following groups: South Asian, Chinese, Black, Filipino, Latin American, Arab, Southeast Asian, West Asian, Korean and Japanese.

In 2021, there were approximately ******* Indian residents living in London, the most of any foreign nationality. Nigerian nationals numbered *******, and were the second most common nationality in this year.

The population of London reached over **** million in 2024, an increase of almost *** million people when compared with the early 1980s. Throughout the 1980s, the population of the United Kingdom's capital grew at a relatively slow rate, before accelerating to a much faster rate in the 1990s. London is by far the largest city / urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom, more than three times larger than the next largest cities of Manchester and Birmingham. London’s forecasted population is expected to continue growing at much the same pace it has been growing since the mid-1990s and reach almost *** million by 2042. London boroughs As of 2024, the London borough with the highest population was Croydon, at approximately *******, followed by Barnet at *******. Overall, London is divided into 33 different boroughs, with London's historic center, the City of London, having by far the smallest population, at just ******. Residents of the City of London, however, have the highest average median weekly earnings among all of London's boroughs, at ***** pounds per week, compared with just *** pounds per week in Redbridge, the lowest average weekly earnings among London boroughs. While the overall unemployment rate for London was 5** percent in early 2025, this ranged from ****percent in Newham, to just *** percent in Richmond upon Thames.
Economic imbalance Aside from being the UK's largest city in terms of population, London is also undoubtedly the UK's cultural, political and economic center. As of 2023, the GDP of Greater London was approximately *** billion British pounds, almost a quarter of the UK's overall GDP. In the same year, GDP per person in London was ****** pounds compared with the UK average of ****** pounds. Additionally, productivity in London is far higher than the UK average. As measured by output per hour worked, London was **** percent more productive than the rest of the UK.

The aboriginal populations chart shows the composition of the aboriginal population in a municipality.

The ethnic group projections are produced for London borough and provide detailed projection by 17 ethnic groups of London’s future population. Two variants are produced: one consistent with the 2016-based central trend projection, and one consistent with the 2016-based housing-led projection. The 2016-based projections remain the most recent set of GLA ethnic group projections.

UK residents by broad country of birth and citizenship groups, broken down by UK country, local authority, unitary authority, metropolitan and London boroughs, and counties. Estimates from the Annual Population Survey.

A number of characteristics of individuals are protected under the 2010 Equality Act, in order to limit the discrimination and disadvantage of groups with one or several shared characteristics. This table brings together a range of sources to present estimates of London's population by gender, age, ethnicity, religion, disability status, country of birth and sexual identity. It also shows population breakdowns for subgroups in each of these categories by broad age group and ethnicity.

The socio-economic position of individuals is not a protected characteristic, but is nonetheless an important factor affecting outcomes. The table therefore also includes social class at the household level.

This dataset provides Census 2021 estimates that classify usual residents aged 16 years and over in employment the week before the census in England and Wales by industry and by ethnic group. The estimates are as at Census Day, 21 March 2021.

Area type

Census 2021 statistics are published for a number of different geographies. These can be large, for example the whole of England, or small, for example an output area (OA), the lowest level of geography for which statistics are produced.

For higher levels of geography, more detailed statistics can be produced. When a lower level of geography is used, such as output areas (which have a minimum of 100 persons), the statistics produced have less detail. This is to protect the confidentiality of people and ensure that individuals or their characteristics cannot be identified.

Lower tier local authorities

Lower tier local authorities provide a range of local services. There are 309 lower tier local authorities in England made up of 181 non-metropolitan districts, 59 unitary authorities, 36 metropolitan districts and 33 London boroughs (including City of London). In Wales there are 22 local authorities made up of 22 unitary authorities.

Coverage

Census 2021 statistics are published for the whole of England and Wales. However, you can choose to filter areas by:

• country - for example, Wales
• region - for example, London
• local authority - for example, Cornwall
• health area – for example, Clinical Commissioning Group
• statistical area - for example, MSOA or LSOA

Industry (current)

Classifies people aged 16 years and over who were in employment between 15 March and 21 March 2021 by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code that represents their current industry or business.

The SIC code is assigned based on the information provided about a firm or organisation’s main activity.

Ethnic group

The ethnic group that the person completing the census feels they belong to. This could be based on their culture, family background, identity or physical appearance.

Respondents could choose one out of 19 tick-box response categories, including write-in response options.

IMPORTANT NOTE: These projections have been superceded, please see https://data.london.gov.uk/demography/ for the latest GLA projections. For the 2014 round, two sets of ethnic group projections were produced: the first consistent with the published Long Term Migration trend-based population projection , and the second with the SHLAA-capped household size development-linked projections incorporating development trajectories derived from the 2013 Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment. These projections have been produced on the basis of ten aggregated ethnic groups and are consistent with the available results from the 2001 and 2011 Censuses. This data is also available to download in the custom-age tool. A Tableau visualisation of the SHLAA-capped (short-term migration variant) ethnic group population projections is available.

This dataset shows different breakdowns of London's resident population by their nationality. Data used comes from ONS' Annual Population Survey (APS).

The APS has a sample of around 320,000 people in the UK (around 28,000 in London). As such all figures must be treated with some caution. 95% confidence interval levels are provided.

Numbers have been rounded to the nearest thousand and figures for smaller populations have been suppressed.

Two files are available to download:

• Nationality - Borough: Shows nationality estimates in their broad groups such as European Union, South East Asia, North Africa, etc. broken down to borough level.
• Detailed Nationality - London: Shows nationality estimates for specific countries such as France, Bangladesh, Nigeria, etc. available for London as a whole.

A Tableau visualisation tool is also available.

Country of Birth data can be found here: https://data.london.gov.uk/dataset/country-of-birth

Nationality refers to that stated by the respondent during the interview. Country of birth is the country in which they were born. It is possible that an individual’s nationality may change, but the respondent’s country of birth cannot change. This means that country of birth gives a more robust estimate of change over time.

Two projection variants were produced for the 2011 round: consistent with the published standard- and high- fertility population projections. These population projections incorporated development trajectories derived from the 2009 Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment. These projections have been produced on the basis of ten aggregated ethnic groups and were consistent with the available results from the 2001 Census.

Graph and download economic data for Population Estimate, Total, Not Hispanic or Latino, Some Other Race Alone (5-year estimate) in New London County, CT (B03002008E009011) from 2009 to 2021 about New London County, CT; Norwich; CT; non-hispanic; estimate; 5-year; persons; population; and USA.

Projections were produced consistent with both published sets of population projections. The first of these incorporated development trajectories derived from the 2009 Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment and the second is based on the development trajectories assumed for the London Plan. These projections have been produced on the basis of ten aggregated ethnic groups and were consistent with the available results from the 2001 Census.

The ethnic group projections are produced for London borough and provide detailed projection by 17 ethnic groups of London’s future population.

Two variants are produced: one consistent with the 2016-based central trend projection, and one consistent with the 2016-based housing-led projection.

The 2016-based projections remain the most recent set of GLA ethnic group projections.