Ethnicity Map of UK: East Midlands
The East Midlands has the second smallest population – 4.1 million – of all of England's regions, even though in square kilometres it is the fourth largest. Nine per cent of its population comes from ethnic minority groups.
There are three major cities in the East Midlands (Leicester, Nottingham and Derby) and most of the region's ethnic minority population is concentrated in these cities.
Parminder Nagra (ER, Bend It Like Beckham) is from Leicester
The largest minority group in this region by a long way is the Asian one. There are almost twice as many Asians in the East Midlands as there are White non-British, the next biggest group. In Leicester, a third of the population originates from the Indian subcontinent and experts predict that by the time of the next census in 2011, Leicester could be the first city in Europe to have a majority non-white population.
Half of all the East Midlands' Asian population live in Leicester, but Derby and Nottingham also have their own very distinct ethnic make-up. Many of the Indians in Derby are Sikhs, from the Punjab in northern India, whereas most of the Indians in Leicester are Hindus – the most common religion in India. In Nottingham the Black Caribbean group is the largest minority group, making up 9,000 of the overall population of 280,000.
East Midlands in numbers
Out of every 1,000 people:
- 912 are White British
- 40 are White non-British
- 22 are Asian
- 10 people are mixed race
- 9 people are Black
- 3 people are Chinese
Focus on... Lincoln
Compared with the other main cities in the East Midlands, Lincoln is not at all diverse. 95% of its population are White British where in Leicester the figure is 61% and the national average for England 87%.
Sources: Office for National Statistics, Commission for Racial Equality
