Demography: population

Available data

There are two sources of information available on the the ethnic breakdown of the borough's population. These are experimental ONS statistics for PCTs and for Local Authorities and the GLA population estimates by ethnicity: both data sets are only available at the borough level. ONS data being based on GP registrations may lead to under estimates of the borough's population.

The ONS ethnicity data page can be found at the following link: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=14238&Pos=1&ColRank=1&Rank=272

The latest ONS statistics are mid year estimates for 2007. These data are broken down by age and gender and also available for broad ethnic group. Components of population change and population change are also available by ethnic group.

The GLA data are available for 2008 and split by gender and five year age group.

Commentary

GLA 2008 Ethnic Group Population projections estimate in 2008 the borough's population was 78.1% white. The largest non white ethnic group was Black Caribbean making up about 4% of the population. By 2011 the proportion of population from each ethnic group should remain largely similar with White ethnic groups predicted to make up 77.9% of the population. Other ethnic groups are the fastest growing and are expected to overtake Black Caribbean as the second largest background by 2012. In these classification Mixed Race people are divided by heritage and allocated amongst Black Other, Asian Other or Other ethnic classifications.