Mixed is an ethnic group category that was first introduced by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

for the 2001 Census. Colloquially, it refers to British citizens or residents whose parents are of two or more races or

ethnic An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

backgrounds. The Mixed or Multiple ethnic group numbered just under 1.8 million in the

2021 United Kingdom census 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, Numeral (linguistics), numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest Positive number, positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in o ...

or 2.7% of the total UK population.

Statistics

A number of academics have pointed out that the ethnicity classification employed in the census and other official statistics in the UK since 1991 involve confusion between the concepts of ethnicity and race. Aspinall notes that sustained academic attention has been focused on "how the censuses measure ethnicity, especially the use of dimensions that many claim have little to do with ethnicity, such as skin colour, race, and nationality". The year 2001 was the first census which asked about mixed race identity. In that census, 677,177 classified themselves as of mixed ethnicity, making up 1.2 percent of the country's population. The 2011 Census gave the figure as 2.2% for England and Wales.

estimates suggest that 956,700 mixed-ethnicity people were resident in England (as opposed to the whole of the country) as of mid-2009, compared to 654,000 at mid-2001. As of May 2011, this figure surpassed 1 million. It was estimated in 2007 that, by 2020, 1.24 million people in the UK would be of mixed race. Research conducted by the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, however, suggests that the mixed race population could already be twice the official estimate figure - up to 2 million. According to ''The Economist'' in October 2020, the 2011 census figure "is probably an undercount, since not all children of mixed marriages will have ticked one of the mixed categories, and the number is likely to have grown since the census". 3.5 percent of all births in England and Wales in 2005 were mixed-ethnicity babies, with 0.9 percent being 'Mixed White and Black Caribbean', 0.5 percent ' Mixed White and Black African', 0.8 percent 'Mixed White and Asian', and 1.3 percent any other mixed background.

Population

The

recorded a population of 1,793,257 or 2.7% of the population in the United Kingdom. When broken down by country, England recorded 1,669,378 (3.0%), Wales recorded 48,598 (1.6%) and Northern Ireland recorded 14,382 (0.8%). The equivalent census was recorded a year later in Scotland with a population of 60,899, or 1.1% of the population. The ten local authorities with the largest proportion of those who identified as Mixed were all located in London:

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...

(8.07%),

Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is an area of southeast London, England, south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and was within the Historic counties of England, historic county of Kent until 1889. It is identified in ...

(8.07%),

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

(7.61%),

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

(7.49%),

Southwark Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...

(7.20%),

Haringey The London Borough of Haringey ( , same as Harringay) is a London borough in north London, classified by some definitions as part of Inner London, and by others as part of Outer London. It was created in 1965 by the amalgamation of three forme ...

(7.02%), Hackney (6.75%),

Hammersmith and Fulham Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. ...

(6.73%), Kensington and Chelsea (6.64%) and Camden (6.63%). The three capitals of the other constituent countries of the United Kingdom held the highest proportion of the Mixed population in their respective countries with

Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...

at 4.00%,

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

at 2.50%, and

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

at 1.20%.

Subgroups

In England and Wales, the 2001 census included four sub-categories of mixed ethnic combinations: " Mixed White and Black Caribbean", " Mixed White and Black African", " Mixed White and Asian" and "Any other Mixed background", with the latter allowing people to write in their ethnicity. Analysis of census results shows that, in England and Wales only, 237,000 people stated their ethnicity as Mixed White and Black Caribbean, 189,000 as Mixed White and Asian, 156,000 as Other Mixed, and 79,000 Mixed White and Black African. The estimates for mid-2009 for England only suggest that there are 301,300 people in the Mixed White and Black Caribbean category, 127,500 Mixed White and Black African, 292,400 Mixed White and Asian, and 235,500 Other Mixed. The White and Black African group grew fastest in percentage terms from 2001 to 2009, followed by White and Asian, Other Mixed and then White and Black Caribbean. The 2011 Census for England and Wales suggested that compared with 2001, the proportion of the population describing themselves as "Mixed White and Black Caribbean" rose from 0.5% to 0.8%, "Mixed White and Asian" from 0.4% to 0.6%, "Mixed White and Black African" from 0.2% to 0.3% and "Other Mixed" 0.3% to 0.5%.Ethnicity and National Identity in England and Wales 2011
Office for National Statistics, 11 December 2012 The census forms in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

did not include sub-groups, but rather single categories: "Any Mixed Background" in Scotland and simply "Mixed" in Northern Ireland. File:Mixed White and Black Caribbean population pyramid 2021.svg, Mixed White and Black Caribbean File:Mixed White and Black African population pyramid 2021.svg, Mixed White and Black African File:Mixed White and Asian population pyramid 2021.svg, Mixed White and Asian File:Mixed Other population pyramid 2021.svg, Mixed Other

Detailed breakdown

References

{{UK census ethnic groups Ethnic groups in the United Kingdom Multiracial affairs in Europe

Statistics

Population

Subgroups

Detailed breakdown

See also

References