Indian Diaspora is the largest ethnic Group in UK
Published Date: Thursday, Dec 13, 2012
The latest census report released on 11 December 2012 by the Office for National Statistics 2011 revealed some interesting facts on the demographic compositions of the UK. The section “Ethnicity and National Identity in England and Wales” revealed that Indian diaspora is the largest ethnic group in the UK and Hinduism with 1.5 per cent of the population is the third most popular religion in the country.
UK has been the favourite destination for the Indians since colonial times. During the post colonial period several Indian people also migrated from earthwhile colonies to the U.K rather than to India. After independence UK consistently retain the favourite destination for workers and students aline. In a recent estimate by the As per estimates of Indian missions in 29 European countries there are about 5,00,000 Indian workers and 39,000 students in the UK, followed 70,248 workers in Italy, 42,500 in Germany, 34,130 in Spain and 19,250 in the Netherlands. Indian workers in Greece, Russia and Switzerland totalled about 33,000. Thus the cumulative figure positions Indian community as the largest ethnic group in UK.
The census report also revealed some interesting facts. The immigrant population of England and Wales went up by nearly three million over the past decade to 7.5 million people. The most common birthplaces outside the UK are from India, Poland and Pakistan. Another interesting fact is related to the decreasing number of Christians as a quarter of Britons said they had no religion. The Christian religion figures 33.2 million, down from 37.3 million in 2001 which makes it 59 per cent of the population. Nearly twenty-five per cent of people said they had no faith, up from 14.8 per cent a decade earlier. Islam became the fastest frowing religion in the country. The proportion of Muslims rose from 3.0 per cent to 4.8 percent between 2001 to 2011.