Non-white people 'to become majority in UK cities'
Friday, 8 December 2000
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Two British cities are heading towards majority black and non-white populations, while the overall population mix will shift in a similar direction, researchers said yesterday.
Two British cities are heading towards majority black and non-white populations, while the overall population mix will shift in a similar direction, researchers said yesterday.
Operation Black Vote, which researches the racial mix in British cities, said it would take at least 50 years before any significant shift was seen in the population figures, but such a shift was inevitable.
Black and ethnic minority residents now make up about 7 per cent of the general population. Growth would occur slowly as the tendency for people of Asian origin to have larger families would decline, said Ashok Viswanathan, spokesman for Operation Black Vote.
"It will slow down, as by the third generation the trend for larger families will stop," he said. "It will take at least 50 years before we have any sizeable shift change in population. But the shift is inevitable and should be celebrated."
Local authority leaders in Birmingham and Leicester have said their cities will be the first with majority non-white populations. Birmingham City Council claims the West Midlands city will get there first, with the change taking place in the next 20 years.
Mr Viswanathan said some London boroughs already have more than 50 per cent non-white populations, such as Newham, east London.
A spokesman for the Commission for Racial Equality said the numbers and proportions of various racial groups were irrelevant. "Numbers don't matter," he said. "What we want is a multi-racial society at ease with itself, and we should be working to achieve that. Who cares what the colour of the skin of our great-grandchildren is?"
The CRE said the fastest-growing population was among Britain's mixed-race groups.
