Indian Diaspora lead in Socio-Economic parameters in the UK

Indian Diaspora lead the aspirational classes in that country and in some aspects leave the majoritarian population behind, according to a prominent British think-tank, Police Exchange. The British ethnic minorities who are addressed as Hindus have crossed one million, the report notes.  

Its 2024 report, A Portrait of Modern Britain: Ethnicity and Religion, carries out the fullest and most in-depth analysis to date of the ethnic diversity of modern Britain. It examines the demographic, educational, health, and economic situation of different ethnic groups – as well as their attitudes to issues such as crime, British history, immigration, and gender.

The report analyses the 2021 Census data and other statistical resources, combining this with state-of-the-art polling conducted by Redfield and Wilton for Policy Exchange, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of 2,000 people of all ethnicities, alongside ‘booster’ samples of 1400 ethnic minority respondents, 200 each from the Black African, Black Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese and Mixed-Race ethnic groups. A series of in-depth interviews with ethnic minority citizens from a diverse range of backgrounds, ethnicities, faiths, and political leanings supplemented this data.

The key finding is that the ethnic group with the highest concentration of professional workers was Indian.

The second finding is that the political integration of ethnic and religious minorities has reached the point where the holding of high public office by non-white, non-Christians has been normalised. In former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Britain had the first ethnic minority leader of any major European nation, the report says: “Three of the four “great offices of state” in Sunak’s first Cabinet were held by ethnic minorities. Both Scotland and Wales also had ethnic minority leaders. They were mostly of the Indian-origin.

In terms of social profiling, from the 2011 to 2021 Census, the percentage of residents across England and Wales who fall into the ‘higher-level’ Asian category has risen from 7.5% to 9.3% (4.3 million to 5.5 million people). The largest Asian-heritage ethnic group is people of Indian origin, which has grown from 2.5% to 3.1% of the overall population during this time (1.4 million to 1.9 million people). 

The report says the highest concentration of Indian-origin people by local authority is in Leicester in the East Midlands, where more than one in three residents identify with this ethnic group – 34.3% (with one in six residents in Leicester being born in India).

For the first time in the history of the England and Wales Census, the number of people identifying as Hindu reached one million – growing from 1.5% to 1.7% of the overall population. 

In terms of age, while not as youthful as the Muslim population, Hindus in England and Wales also have a younger profile than the wider general population. Harrow in west London had the highest concentration of Hindus by local authority (25.8%). There has also been a modest growth in the number of people identifying as Sikh (423,000 to 524,000), Buddhist (249,000 to 273,000), and Jewish (265,000 to 271,000) from the 2011 to 2021 England and Wales Census. The combined population of the three religious groups amounts to less than 2% of the overall population. 

The local authority with the highest concentration of Sikhs was Wolverhampton in the West Midlands (12%). The highest concentration of Buddhists in a local area was in Rushmoor in Hampshire (4.7%), which incorporates the town of Aldershot – the home of Buddhist Community Centre UK (BCCUK) and a notable contingent of Nepalese-heritage families associated with the Brigade of Gurkhas of the British Army.

The report says that reflecting migratory stages and patterns, the age structure of the South Asian ethnic groups is different. Around one in six Indian-heritage residents were under the age of eighteen in the 2021 England and Wales Census (16.7%) – rising to more than one in five for Pakistani-heritage people (22%) and more than one in four for the Bangladeshi-origin population across the two home nations (26.7%). 

Within each of the Indian and Bangladeshi ethnic groups, 2.8% of people are over the age of 75 – rising to 4% for the Pakistani ethnic group. While other factors such as future immigration flows will have an effect, the current-day relative youthfulness and Islamic religiosity of Britain’s Pakistani-heritage and Bangladeshi-origin communities mean that the wider South Asian population is likely to become less ‘Indian’ and more ‘Muslim’ as time progresses.

London is the sought-after address for Indian-origin Britons. According to the 2021 Census data, over one in three Indian-heritage people living in England and Wales are based in London (35.2%) – having an especially notable presence in the western boroughs such as Harrow (home to 75,000 people of Indian origin), along with the north-western borough of Brent (which has 66,000 residents belonging to this ethnic group).

In terms of the workforce, too, the Indian-origin people stand out. The ethnic group with the highest concentration of professional workers was Indian – with two in five Indian-heritage people working in this form of occupation (39.8% to be exact). For this data source, the lowest corresponding figure was found in a merged Pakistani-Bangladeshi category (21.9%) – further highlighting differences in the degree of socioeconomic integration within the UK’s wider South Asian population. 

Significantly, Indian-origin people compete with the local white population for top management positions. The top three ethnic groups in terms of the percentage of workers in the top-tier occupation category (managers, directors, and senior officials) are the following: white Irish (13.5%), white British (10.7%), and Indian (10.6%). The corresponding figure for the Pakistani-Bangladeshi merged category was 8.1%. Less than one in twenty black workers were in the highest occupational grade of managers, directors, and senior officials – 4.6%.

Even in terms of salaries, the Indian-origin people are in the top quarters. The highest-earning group (by median hourly pay) in 2021 is the white-Irish minority (£18.14), followed by workers of Indian heritage (£16.11). Both are notably higher than the level of median hourly pay for workers in the white-British mainstream in 2021 (£13.46). 

The Indian diaspora has another feather in its cap. According to the 2021 Census for England and Wales, the ethnic group with the highest rate of home ownership is Indian – with 71% living in a property that is either owned outright or owned with a mortgage/ loan or shared ownership. This is eight percentage points higher than the overall England and Wales figure of 63% and three percentage points higher than the figure for the white-British mainstream (68%). 

The ethnic group with the lowest percentage of people living in social rented housing is Indian – 5% (one in twenty people). The percentage of Chinese-origin and Pakistani-heritage people living in social rented accommodation is 8% and 13% respectively, with this figure being 14% for those who fall into the white-Irish ethnic group.

A key point the report raises is that among minorities, respondents of Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Black African origin consistently report higher levels of satisfaction with British democracy and trust in the UK Parliament (and politicians generally) than the white-British mainstream.

Out of the eight ethnic groups under analysis, the three highest-ranked on the Educational and Economic Index (EEI) are Indian, Chinese, and white-Irish – with the white-British mainstream trailing some way behind them. Indeed, in terms of EEI score, the white-British mainstream is closer to the two lowest-ranked ethnic groups – Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean – than the three frontrunners. 

The report says the Indian group, scoring 95 out of 100 on the EEI, leads the pack and edges ahead of the Chinese and white-Irish ethnic groups by virtue of having a home-ownership rate that exceeds 70% (according to the 2021 Census for England and Wales).

PS: This article has been written by Guest Author.