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Sri Lanka

Overview

The Sri Lanka-born presence in Britain is down to both historic links and asylum movements caused by its long and bitter civil war.

The overwhelming majority live in London � about 50,000 in 2001 � although there have been proportionately significant arrivals to communities in the East and West Midlands.

About a tenth of British areas have no Sri Lankan-born people in their neighbourhoods, but London has seen some interesting changes in the past 10 years.

It appears from the data that Sri Lanka-born families are moving from inner London areas to outer London, a trend seen in the history of many immigrant communities.

Concentrations of people born in Sri Lanka

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

67,832 people born in Sri Lanka were identified by the 2001 Census � an increase of 72% on 1991.

0.12% of the British population in 2001 were born in Sri Lanka. The majority were recorded in London where they made up 0.7% of the city's population.

58% more Sri Lanka-born people lived in the East Midlands in 2001 than in 1991 � although this is less than 1,300 people in total.

493 Sri Lanka-born people are in the North East, the smallest group in any of the 11 nations and regions of Britain.

Click column titles to sort table by that column.

Distribution of people born in Sri Lanka

	TOTAL NUMBERS			AS % OF ALL PEOPLE
Sort by: Nation/region	1991	2001	+/- %	1991	2001	+/- %
Whole of Britain	39,402	67,832	72.15	0.07	0.12	0.05

East Midlands	776	1,228	58.25	0.02	0.03	0.01
East of England	2,755	3,628	31.69	0.05	0.07	0.02
London	25,832	49,925	93.27	0.39	0.70	0.31
North East	375	493	31.47	0.01	0.02	0.01
North West	998	1,297	29.96	0.01	0.02	0.01
Scotland	682	946	38.71	0.01	0.02	0.01
South East	4,546	6,082	33.79	0.06	0.08	0.02
South West	1,178	1,433	21.65	0.03	0.03	0.00
Wales	567	571	0.71	0.02	0.02	0.00
West Midlands	920	1,366	48.48	0.02	0.03	0.01
Yorks & Humber	773	863	11.64	0.02	0.02	0.00

Most popular areas

		TOTAL NUMBERS			AS % OF ALL PEOPLE
Area	Regions	1991	2001	+/- %	1991	2001	+/- %
Rayners Lane	London	627	2,379	279.43	1.30	4.59	3.29
East Ham S	London	937	2,009	114.41	1.79	3.19	1.40
Wembley	London	1,150	1,904	65.57	2.58	5.42	2.84
Mitcham	London	830	1,848	122.65	2.04	3.87	1.83
Southall W	London	694	1,706	145.82	1.13	2.65	1.52
Sudbury	London	440	1,635	271.59	1.23	3.32	2.09
Selhurst	London	500	1,584	216.80	0.94	2.55	1.61
Greenhill	London	583	1,534	163.12	1.03	2.62	1.59
Greenford	London	402	1,292	221.39	0.73	1.98	1.25
East Ham N	London	646	1,053	63.00	1.43	2.10	0.67

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