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China

Overview

The near 52,000 China-born people in Britain comprise one of the smallest key immigrant groups. They are mainly concentrated in London.

But the 2001 figures are almost certainly only part of the picture as Chinese community leaders accept an underreporting of their nationals, driven by asylum movements and unauthorised or illegal migrants.

The growth in China-born people in Eastern England does reflect some of this economic migration. There was a 152% rise in Chinese people in the area over 10 years, representing 4,661 people or 0.09% of the local population.

By contrast, clusters in Cambridge and Oxford reflect the growth in numbers of foreign students at those universities.

Concentrations of people born in China

Map on right shows country as if areas with roughly equal populations were the same size. So, densely populated London takes up much more space than sparsely populated Scottish Highlands.

At-a-glance

51,717 people born in China were identified in the 2001 Census, representing 0.09% of the British population.

13,782 are resident in London, while Wales and the North East had the smallest communities.

5 of the fastest growing Chinese clusters are close to universities with large overseas recruitment drives.

243,000 people told the Census they had Chinese ethnicity, with 80,000 of them in the capital.

Click column titles to sort table by that column.

Distribution of people born in China

	TOTAL NUMBERS			AS % OF ALL PEOPLE
Sort by: Nation/region	1991	2001	+/- %	1991	2001	+/- %
Whole of Britain	23,846	51,717	116.88	0.04	0.09	0.05

East Midlands	959	2,922	204.69	0.02	0.07	0.05
East of England	1,844	4,661	152.77	0.04	0.09	0.05
London	7,053	13,782	95.41	0.11	0.19	0.08
North East	675	1,321	95.70	0.03	0.05	0.02
North West	3,156	6,436	103.93	0.05	0.10	0.05
Scotland	1,733	3,329	92.09	0.03	0.07	0.04
South East	3,397	7,774	128.85	0.05	0.10	0.05
South West	1,445	3,201	121.52	0.03	0.06	0.03
Wales	767	1,264	64.80	0.03	0.04	0.01
West Midlands	1,424	3,862	171.21	0.03	0.07	0.04
Yorks & Humber	1,393	3,165	127.21	0.03	0.06	0.03

Most popular areas

		TOTAL NUMBERS			AS % OF ALL PEOPLE
Area	Regions	1991	2001	+/- %	1991	2001	+/- %
Cambridge W	East of England	208	462	122.12	0.51	0.85	0.34
Colindale	London	144	413	186.81	0.25	0.70	0.45
Cambridge E	East of England	90	382	324.44	0.18	0.70	0.52
Oxford Headington	South East	65	380	484.62	0.13	0.74	0.61
Moss Side	North West	198	379	91.41	0.47	0.84	0.37
Oxford W	South East	159	369	132.08	0.63	0.98	0.35
Leeds City	Yorks & Humber	97	350	260.82	0.18	0.60	0.42
Edgbaston E	West Midlands	139	345	148.20	0.33	0.76	0.43
Sheffield City W	Yorks & Humber	167	339	102.99	0.39	0.67	0.28
Liverpool Riverside N	North West	221	334	51.13	0.66	0.92	0.26

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