More ethnically diverse populations for UK local areas

In 40 years' time the UK will be a more diverse but more integrated society, according to research at the University of Leeds. Ethnic minorities will make up a fifth of the population but they will be less concentrated in the big cities, the report says. Philip Rees, from the School of Geography, who has led the research, said: “At a regional level, the ethnic minorities will shift out of deprived inner city areas to the suburbs and surrounding towns. “This echoes the way that white groups have migrated in the past with the growth of the middle classes. In particular the Black and Asian populations of affluent local authorities will increase significantly. The main aims of the research were to understand the impact that immigration from and emigration to other countries is having on the size and structure of the UK population at a local level and the demographic changes that local ethnic populations are likely to experience over the next 40 years. The results suggest that the sustained growth of ethnic minority groups over the period 2001-2051 will be driven by demographic factors such as future fertility and mortality rates, immigration and emigration flows and migration between local authorities within the UK.