Black British people

Black British people

Distribution by local authorities in the 2011 census
Regions with significant populations
United Kingdom
England	2,381,724 (4.2%) (2021 census)[1]
Scotland	36,178 (0.7%) (2011 census)[note 1]
Wales	27,554 (0.8%) (2021 census)[1]
Northern Ireland	11,032 (0.58%) (2021 census)[4]
Languages
English (British English, Black British English, Caribbean English, African English), Creole languages, French, Jamaican Patois, Nigerian Pidgin, and other languages
Religion
Predominantly Christianity (69%); minority follows Islam (15%), other faiths or are irreligious (6%) 2011 census, Great Britain only[5] Note ^ For the purpose of harmonising results to make them comparable across the United Kingdom, the ONS includes individuals in Scotland who classified themselves in the "African" category (29,638 people), which in the Scottish version of the census is separate from "Caribbean or Black" (6,540 people),[2] in this "Black or Black British" category. The ONS note that "the African categories used in Scotland could potentially capture White/Asian/Other African in addition to Black identities".[3]

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Black British people are a multi-ethnic group of British people of either African or Afro-Caribbean descent.^[6] The term Black British developed in the 1950s, referring to the Black British West Indian people from the former Caribbean British colonies in the West Indies (i.e., the New Commonwealth) sometimes referred to as the Windrush Generation and Black British people descending from Africa.

The term black has historically had a number of applications as a racial and political label and may be used in a wider sociopolitical context to encompass a broader range of non-European ethnic minority populations in Britain. This has become a controversial definition.^[7] Black British is one of various self-designation entries used in official UK ethnicity classifications.

Around 3 per cent of the United Kingdom's population in 2011 were Black. The figures have increased from the 1991 census when 1.63 per cent of the population were recorded as Black or Black British to 1.15 million residents in 2001, or 2 per cent of the population, this further increased to just over 1.9 million in 2011. Almost 97 per cent of Black Britons live in England, particularly in England's larger urban areas, with most (over a million) Black British living in Greater London.