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Zimbabwe

Overview

The Zimbabwean population in Britain has been changing rapidly for two reasons, both of which mean that the 2001 figures are almost certainly substantially out of date.

Firstly, the expansion in NHS staff has attracted many more Zimbabwean doctors and nurses than in previous decades.

Secondly, the political turmoil in the country led to a sharp rise in asylum seekers fleeing the regime of President Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabweans are overwhelmingly concentrated in London and its northern commuter towns. Luton, Milton Keynes and Slough are some of the key areas to have experienced rises in southern African populations over the past decade.

Concentrations of people born in Zimbabwe

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

49,000 Zimbabwe-born people were living in Britain in 2001 � just over half of them in London.

480 Zimbabwe-born people were living in Luton Town in 2001 � a jump from the 28 who were there in 1991 but representing less than 1% of Luton's residents.

4 areas of the country had populations under 0.1%.

5 growing clusters of Zimbabwe-born in the East of England region make it the area seeing the most change from this nationality outside of London.

Click column titles to sort table by that column.

Distribution of people born in Zimbabwe

	TOTAL NUMBERS			AS % OF ALL PEOPLE
Sort by: Nation/region	1991	2001	+/- %	1991	2001	+/- %
Whole of Britain	21,427	49,303	130.10	0.04	0.09	0.05

East Midlands	1,270	2,815	121.65	0.03	0.07	0.04
East of England	2,036	5,595	174.80	0.04	0.10	0.06
London	6,131	17,021	177.62	0.09	0.24	0.15
North East	360	607	68.61	0.01	0.02	0.01
North West	1,248	2,152	72.44	0.02	0.03	0.01
Scotland	1,274	2,078	63.11	0.03	0.04	0.01
South East	4,726	10,059	112.84	0.06	0.13	0.07
South West	2,054	3,557	73.17	0.04	0.07	0.03
Wales	535	777	45.23	0.02	0.03	0.01
West Midlands	989	2,645	167.44	0.02	0.05	0.03
Yorks & Humber	804	1,997	148.38	0.02	0.04	0.02

Most popular areas

		TOTAL NUMBERS			AS % OF ALL PEOPLE
Area	Regions	1991	2001	+/- %	1991	2001	+/- %
Luton High Town	East of England	28	480	1,614.29	0.06	0.88	0.82
Wimbledon N	London	78	288	269.23	0.19	0.62	0.43
Canning Town	London	32	267	734.38	0.10	0.65	0.55
Forest Gate	London	68	266	291.18	0.17	0.52	0.35
Knighton	East Midlands	148	265	79.05	0.26	0.49	0.23
Southend E	East of England	33	263	696.97	0.04	0.35	0.31
Slough E	South East	21	250	1,090.48	0.04	0.46	0.42
Slough W	South East	15	241	1,506.67	0.03	0.45	0.42
Hackney S	London	58	237	308.62	0.11	0.36	0.25
Selhurst	London	38	232	510.53	0.07	0.37	0.30

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