Why Nigel Farage is wrong about London being 'minority white'
- Published
In a widely seen video on Twitter, external former UKIP leader Nigel Farage claimed that new census figures showed that "London, Birmingham and Manchester are all now minority white cities".
He is referring to figures released, external on 29 November, based on the 2021 Census, which included ethnicity breakdowns for local authorities in England and Wales.
The census is a huge exercise carried out every 10 years by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - people are compelled by law to fill in their census forms.
Mr Farage is wrong in most of this claim.
If you add up the 33 local authorities in Greater London for the five ONS categories of white people:
English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British
Irish
Gypsy or Irish Traveller
Roma
Other
It turns out that 53.8% of Londoners said they were white in 2021 - so a white majority.
In 2011, this figure was 59.8%.
Looking at the first category of people identifying themselves as white, so English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British, this accounted for 36.8% in London.
In 2011, this figure was 44.9%.
There were some local authorities in London in 2021 with below 50% identifying as white.
They were Newham, Brent, Redbridge, Harrow, Tower Hamlets, Ealing, Hounslow, Barking and Dagenham, Hillingdon and Croydon.
Manchester, which is a single local authority, had 56.8% identifying as white - so a white majority.
In 2011, this figure was 66.7%.
Those who identified as white English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British stood at 48.7%.
In 2011, this figure was 59.3%.
Birmingham had 48.6% identifying as white - so a white minority - Mr Farage was right about this city.
In 2011, this figure was 57.9%.
Those who identified as white English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British stood at 42.9%.
In 2011, this figure was 53.1%.
Other local authorities with less than half of people identifying as white were: Slough, Leicester and Luton.
The ONS has issued a statement, external criticising "misleading statistical claims" that white people are now a minority in London and Manchester.
Religious changes
Mr Farage also claimed that "only 46% now identify as Christian".
He is right about that. There were 27.5 million people who answered the voluntary religion question on the census saying they were Christian, which is down 5.8 million from the previous census in 2011.
The other big change in the religion category was people identifying as having no religion, which had increased by 8.1 million to 22.2 million people.
Census changes
Mr Farage ended his Twitter video by saying: "The ONS now say in future they will not ask the nationality or birthplace of those taking part in this census... in future they want to hide the true figures from you... it's a scandal."
He appears to be referring to the next census. If that happens, it will be in 2031, but nothing has been decided about that census, including whether it will be conducted at all.
The ONS told Reality Check: "These claims are simply not true. We published the latest country of birth statistics from the census earlier this month and our latest migration estimates last week.
"We are reviewing the best methods to produce estimates of the UK population as part of our transformation of population and migration statistics making the best use of all available data."
"Using new methods, we intend to produce our next estimates of the non-UK born population in 2023."
