A census is a count of the whole population. It also collects statistics on topics such as age, place of birth, occupation, ethnicity, housing, health, and marital status.

A census has been taken every ten years since 1801, except during the second World War. The next census will take place in 2011.

During a census a form is delivered to every household in the country . This form asks for detailed information about each member of the household and must be completed by law. The information remains confidential and anonymous; it can only be released to the public after 100 years, when many people researching their family history find it very useful. General census information is used to identify population trends and to help planning. More information about the census, the census form and statistics from previous censuses can be found at www.statistics.gov.uk/census

Ethnic Diversity

The UK population is ethnically diverse and is changing rapidly, especially in large cities such as London, so it is not always easy to get an exact picture of the ethnic origin of all the population from census statistics. Each of the four countries of the UK (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) has different customs, attitudes and histories.

People of Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Black Caribbean, Black African, Bangladeshi and mixed ethnic descent make up 8.3% of the UK population. Today about half the members of these communities were born in the United Kingdom.

There are also considerable numbers of people resident in the UK who are of Irish, Italian, Greek and Turkish Cypriot, Polish, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and American descent. Large numbers have also arrived since 2004 from the new East European member states if the European Union. These groups are not identified separately in the census statistics in the following table.

UK population 2001

White	54.2 million	92.0% UK population
Mixed	0.7 million	1.2% UK population

Asian or Asian British

Indian	1.1 million	1.8% UK population
Pakistani	0.7 million	1.3% UK population
Bangladeshi	0.3 million	0.5% UK population
Other Asian	0.2 million	0.4% UK population

Black or Black British

Black Carribean	0.6 million	1.0% UK population
Black African	0.5 million	0.8% UK population
Black Other	0.1 million	0.2% UK population
Chinese	0.2 million	0.4% UK population
Other	0.2 million	0.4% UK population

Source: National Statistics from the 2001 census

Where do the largest ethnic minority groups live?

The figures from the 2001 census show that most members of the large ethnic minority groups in the UK live in England, where they make up 9% of the total population. 45% of all ethnic minority people live in the London area, where they form one-third of the population (29%). Other areas of England with large ethnic minority populations are the West Midlands, the South East, the North West, and Yorkshire and Humberside.

Proportion of ethnic minority groups in the countries of the UK

England	9%
Scotland	2%
Wales	2%
Northern Ireland	Less than 1%

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