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White people in the United Kingdom

Geographic distribution of White people in the United Kingdom (2011)
Total population
United Kingdom: 55,592,837 – 83.0% (2021/22 Census)  England: 45,783,401 – 81.0% (2021)[1]  Scotland: 5,051,875 – 92.9% (2022)[2]  Wales: 2,915,848 – 94.2% (2021)[1] Northern Ireland: 1,841,713 – 96.8% (2021)[3]
Languages
British English · Hiberno-English · Polish · Romanian · Welsh Angloromani · Beurla Reagaird · Cornish · French · German · Irish · Italian · Scottish Gaelic · Shelta
Religion
Predominantly Christianity (51.3%); minority follows other faiths (1.6%)[a] or are irreligious (41.3%) 2021 census, NI, England and Wales only[4][5]
Related ethnic groups
White Americans · White South Africans · White Australians · White New Zealanders · Irish People · White Canadians

White people in the United Kingdom are a multi-ethnic group consisting of indigenous and European UK residents who identify as and are perceived to be 'white people'. White people constitute the historical and current majority of the people living in the United Kingdom, with 83.0% of the population identifying as white in the 2021 United Kingdom census.

The Office for National Statistics designates white people into several subgroups, with small terminology variations between the administrative jurisdictions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These are local: White British, White Irish, White Gypsy or Irish Traveller, and immigrant descended Other White, and in Scotland; White Polish. In Northern Ireland ethnic group data is collected differently, where only the term 'White' is used, and with National Identity ('British', 'Irish', 'Northern Irish', or combinations) collected separately.

British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, and can influence who may be defined, whether informally, in media and academia, or UK Government statistics, as white Britons or white British people. Millions of white people in the United Kingdom, who hold British citizenship, do not identify with the White British ethnicity classification (or its subgroups, such as 'White English', 'White Welsh' or 'White Scottish') at censuses.^{[citation needed]}

Outside of the census, white people in Great Britain have been the subject of academic research, and have featured in public discourse in international and British media, in which they often are identified as a broad racial or social class within the country.^{[citation needed]}

Terminology and background

White people in the United Kingdom are studied, polled, and analysed as a demographic, anthropological, economic, and social grouping. The scope of the definition often exceeds categorisation by the Office for National Statistics, and its ethnicity or nation-defined subcategories, such as White British or White Polish.^{[citation needed]}

Census

Within the Census in the United Kingdom, the Office for National Statistics collects information on white people who are resident in the United Kingdom, regardless of citizenship status. As censuses have progressed each decade, further categories have been included to accommodate subgroupings of white people in the country. As of the 2011 census, these subgroups are White British, White Irish, White Gypsy or Irish Traveller, White Polish (in Scotland), and Other White. There are small variations between the phrasing or terminology of these categories across the administrative regions of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.^[6]

Use in academia and government

A multitude of scholars, academics, statisticians, and scientists, as well as government departments, think tanks, trade unions, and charities, have identified white people in the United Kingdom as an observable demographic, historical, anthropological, economic, social and racial grouping.

In governmental terms, the UK Government uses the category of white people to help define and understand demography in the country. The Office for National Statistics collects census information on white people.^[6] Devolved administrations, such as the Scottish Government and Welsh Government make use of the racial category for social and equality impacts.^[7][8] Ministerial departments such as the Home Office and Ministry of Justice,^[9][10] non-ministerial, such as the Cabinet Office and office for Mayor of London,^[11][12] HM Inspectorate of Constabulary,^[13] and public bodies such as the Equality and Human Rights Commission,^[14] and UK Statistics Authority, have produced research and analysis on, what they have defined as, white persons within the country.^[15][16]

Academic, research and statistical organisations, such as British Election Study, NatCen Social Research and ICM Research, Savanta ComRes, define and categorise whites living in the UK, in order to study and poll respondents of all backgrounds.^{[17][18][19][20]} Think tanks, including the Policy Studies Institute, Resolution Foundation, Smith Institute and Social Issues Research Centre, utilise the grouping of white people in the United Kingdom,^{[21][7][22][23]} along with Stroke Association and Trades Union Congress.^[24][25]

Sociologists, social scientists, and academics of race and ethnicity, such as Peter J. Aspinall, Richard Dyer and Mary J. Hickman identify whites in Britain as an intersecting social and racial category.^[26][27][28]

Homogeneity myths and exclusions

Anthropologists Jeanette Edwards, Gillian Evans and Katherine Smith published in 2012:^[29]

Anthropological studies that have focused on white people in Britain have, however, undermined the imagined homogeneity of white Britishness, particularly with respect to differences of class and territorial affiliation. For example, Ronnie Frankenberg's (1957) ethnography of a mining village in North Wales in the 1950s showed sharp divisions, made locally, between insiders and outsiders, and this division is repeated over again in subsequent ethnographic examples from Britain (e.g., Edwards 2000; Rapport 1993; Strathern 1981).

White Irish

University of the West of Scotland's Chris Gilligan argues that; "The idea that White people in the United Kingdom constitute a race or ethnic group is based on racialised thinking. It works with the logic of the race relations framework, it does not challenge it."^[30] In her 2015 research, University of Southampton fellow Rosalind Willis studied the intersection of the White Irish category in England, where there have been examples of distinctions made against the White British which are culturally rejected or ignored.^[31] In this regard, professor Mary J. Hickman has written how a combination of othering the ethnic Irish, and a presupposition of the positivity of integration, has provided "tacit support for the 'myth of homogeneity' of white people in Britain".^[27]

In July 2019, the East Ham constituency Labour branch was criticised for its election of a white Irish woman as the women’s officer for its Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) forum. The woman in question self-identified as being an ethnic minority and no objections within the branch were raised against her election. Branch secretary, Syed Taqi Shah commented that "if somebody self-declares , and the Labour Party allows them to do so, they should be respected."^[32][33]

Demographics

White people are the current and historical majority of the United Kingdom's population. The 2011 United Kingdom census recorded 55,010,359 of White and 63,193 of Gypsy/Traveller/Irish Traveller ethnicity, making a total white population of 55,073,552 or 87.2 per cent of the total population. These figures did not include self-reported people of mixed ethnicity.^[6][34]

• White population mapped in local authorities
• 
  1991 (94.65%)

    Less than 45%

    45 - 60%

    60 - 75%

    75 - 85%

    85 - 90%

    90 - 95%

    More than 95%
• 
  2001 (92.12%)

    Less than 45%

    45 - 60%

    60 - 75%

    75 - 85%

    85 - 90%

    90 - 95%

    More than 95%
• 
  2011 (87.17%)

    Less than 45%

    45 - 60%

    60 - 75%

    75 - 85%

    85 - 90%

    90 - 95%

    More than 95%

Population in constituent nations of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom NUTS 1 Region's	Year
	1971 estimations[35][36][37]		1981 estimations[38][39][40][37]		1991[41]		2001[42][43][44]		2011[45][46][47]		2021[48]
	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage	Number	Percentage
Northern Ireland	–	–	–	–	–	–	1,672,698	99.25%	1,779,750	98.28%	1,841,713	96.77%
Scotland	–	99.6%	4,908,140	99.1%	4,935,933	98.74%	4,960,334	97.99%	5,084,407	96.02%	5,051,875	92.9%
Wales	–	99.6%	2,788,533	99.1%	2,793,522	98.5%	2,841,505	97.9%	2,928,253	95.6%	2,915,848	94.2%
England	–	–	–	95.4%	44,144,339	93.8%	44,679,361	91%	45,281,142	85.4%	45,783,401	81%
North East England	–	99.6%	2,544,069	99%	2,507,133	98.6%	2,455,416	97.61%	2,475,567	95.32%	2,462,720	93.1%
South West England	–	–	–	–	4,546,848	98.6%	4,815,316	97.7%	5,046,429	95.41%	5,309,608	93.1%
North West England	–	98.7%	6,580,840	97.5%	6,480,131	96.3%	6,355,495	94.43%	6,361,716	90.2%	6,347,394	85.6%
Yorkshire and the Humber	–	98.1%	4,600,341	96.8%	4,622,503	95.6%	4,641,263	93.48%	4,691,956	88.8%	4,679,965	85.5%
East of England	–	99.3%	–	98.5%	4,891,675	96.8%	5,125,003	95.11%	5,310,194	90.81%	5,478,364	86.5%
East Midlands	–	98%	3,598,625	96.2%	3,765,389	95.2%	3,900,380	93.48%	4,046,356	89.26%	4,179,774	85.7%
South East England	–	–	–	–	7,271,256	96.9%	7,608,989	95.10%	7,827,820	90.65%	8,009,38	86.2%
West Midlands	–	95.9%	4,716,950	93.5%	4,725,824	91.8%	4,674,296	88.74%	4,633,669	82.7%	4,585,024	77%
Greater London	–	92.6%	5,663,496	85.7%	5,333,580	79.8%	5,103,203	71.2%	4,887,435	59.8%	4,731,172	53.8%
Overall in the United Kingdom:	–	97.5%	–	96%	51,873,794	94.5%	54,153,898	92.12%	55,073,552	87.2%	55,592,837	83.0%

Population in metropolitan areas

• White population in LAD areas (2011)
• 
  Coventry
• 
  Bristol
• 
  Glasgow
  Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=White_people_in_the_United_Kingdom
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