Elham Asaad Buaras

The Muslim population in England and Wales now stands at 3.87 million, an increase of 1.16 million (44%) since 2011, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published on November 29.

According to the 10-year census in 2021, the Muslim population increased in tandem with the overall population, which increased from 56.08 million in 2011 to 59.60 million in 2021. Muslims account for 33% of population growth. In 2011, Muslims formed 4.8% of the population or just under 1 in 20; they now stand at just under 1 in 15.

The data suggests Muslims comprise 6.5% of the overall population. The population identifying as Christian has dropped from 59% in 2011 to 46% this time. Islam continues to be the largest non-Christian faith group.

Overall, the UK continues to be a more diverse nation, with the minority ethnic population standing at 18% of the overall population, compared to 14% in 2011.

Furthermore, while Islam remains the largest non-Christian faith group, the proportion of people who identify as having “no religion” has increased to 35% (from 25% in 2011).

As per the census, “no religion” was the second-most common response after Christianity, as, for the first time, less than half (46.2%) of the population in England and Wales identified as Christian, down 13.1% points from 2011.

Ticking “no religion” does not mean having no beliefs, says Prof Linda Woodhead, of King’s College London. “Some will be atheist; a lot will be agnostic — they just say, “I don’t know” — and some will be spiritual and be doing spiritual things,” she said.

Regional breakdown of Muslim population

London is the most religiously diverse region of England, with just over 25.3% of people reporting a religion other than Christianity. 14.3% of Londoners identify as Muslim.

The second highest percentage of people identifying as Muslim was in the North-West (6.6%), followed by Yorkshire and the Humber (4.8%), the West Midlands (4.2%), the East of England (3.2%), the South-East (2.9%), the North East (2.9%), the East Midlands (2.5%), Wales (1.4%) and the South West (1%).

South-West England is the least religiously diverse region, with 3.2% selecting a religion other than Christianity.

The figures also showed differences by nation: in England alone, 37.2% of people said they had no religion, while in Wales, this rose to 46.5% from 32.1% in 2011.

While the Muslim population has started to disperse from urban centres, there is worrying correlation between the areas with the worst levels of deprivation and the percentage share of Muslims.

The data showed that 61% of Muslims in England and Wales live in the lowest 40% of areas in the country ranked by deprivation score, with almost half a million more Muslims now living in these most deprived locales than in 2011. Just 4% of Muslims live in the most deprived fifth of England and Wales.

The top five locales with the largest Muslim populations are Birmingham (341,811), Bradford (166,846), the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (123,912), Manchester (122,962), and the London Borough of Newham (122,146).

Commenting on the data, MCB Secretary General Zara Mohammed said, “While our nation has an increasingly aged population, the contribution of a youthful Muslim population to the workforce remains a strategic national asset. The last decade has seen more second and third-generation Muslims, confident of our faith and place in society, contributing immensely to the economic recovery and vitality of our nation.

“There are, of course, areas of concern, particularly where many Muslim communities are disproportionately impacted by deprivation. This is especially worrying given the concern about access to opportunity and inclusion. Policymakers now need to address these concerns. Communities cannot continue to be left in cycles of poor social mobility.

Young people cannot have a bright future if they do not have the best opportunities available to them. “Whilst the Census does look at religion, the lack of wider religion-specific monitoring prevents us from fully understanding how acute the issue of under-representation of Muslims is in British society.

“These initial figures give us an opportunity to now make meaningful change and create a better Britain for all.” The government’s ‘Levelling Up the UK’ programme has identified the need for resource allocation in rural local authority districts. However, if this policy is to deliver a truly equitable allocation of resources, then the needs of deprivation in our urban centres also need to be addressed.

England and Wales more ethnically diverse

The number of people who identify as white has fallen by around 500,000 since 2011, from 86% to 81.7%. The proportion identifying as white and from the British Isles stood at 74.4%, down six points from 2011. The category of “other white” grew in a decade when Britain saw continued immigration from Eastern Europe before and after its Brexit referendum in 2016.

The ONS did, however, note that respondents had more options than in 2011, encouraging them to list additional identities. The second most common ethnic group after white was “Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh,” at 9.3%, up from 7.5% a decade ago. Within that group, most respondents identified their family heritage as Indian, followed by Pakistani, “other Asian,” Bangladeshi, and Chinese.

The next largest ethnic group was the fast-growing African population, followed by the Caribbean. One in 10 households is now made up of people from two or more different ethnic groups—an increase from 8.7%.

It also found that Punjabi and Urdu have become the fifth and sixth most common languages spoken in the UK, with 291,000 and 270,000 speakers, respectively, making up around 1% of the total population. The Deputy Director of the Census, Jon Wroth-Smith, said: “Today’s data highlights the increasingly multicultural society we live in. The percentage of people identifying their ethnic group as ‘White: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish or British,’ continues to decrease.

While this remains the most common response to the ethnic group question, the number of people identifying with another ethnic group continues to increase. “However, the picture varies depending on where you live.

London remains the most ethnically diverse region of England, where just under two-thirds identify with an ethnic minority group, whereas less than one in 10 identifies this way in the Northeast. “But despite the ethnically diverse nature of society, nine in 10 people across England and Wales still identify with a UK national identity, with nearly eight in 10 doing so in London.”

Religion and ethnicity are the latest sections of the ONS census being released piecemeal.
More detailed data and analysis on religion will be published in the coming months, along with the release of multivariate data. Separate ONS data is released for Scotland, whose census took place in March, while Northern Ireland’s census is conducted by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.

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