England’s non-white population rose by more than half a million between 2001 and 2003 to 7.1 million, with the Chinese community growing at the fastest rate. Over the same period the white British population fell by 100,300 to 42.8 million, according to a report by the Office for National Statistics.

The figures suggest an overall decline in ethnic segregation as non-white groups move into almost every area of the country.

London continues to have the greatest concentration of non-white British ethnic groups, with 40.7 per cent of the capital’s population in 2003 belonging to a non-white British group. But faster growth of the non-white British population in all areas outside London means that its share of the non-white population has fallen from 44.7 per cent to 42.5per cent.

The North East of England has the lowest proportion of its population from a non-white British group (4.6 per cent) and had the highest average annual growth of those groups between 2001 and 2003 (9.9 per cent).

The results suggest that the growth in the non-white population in urban areas such as London is being driven by people arriving from abroad, while growth outside the capital is attributable largely to an urban exodus of minority groups from the cities.

Ceri Peach, Professor of Social Geography at Oxford University, said that racial segregation appeared to be in steady decline. “The traditional movement of population from inner cities to the suburbs is now happening among all groups,” he said.

Although the population of most ethnic groups grew between 2001 and 2003, two groups showed a small decline over the period: white Irish and white British. This is because of net emigration, and, in the white Irish group, because deaths are outstripping births, the report says.

The figures also show that the Chinese community in England grew at 11 per cent a year between 2001 and 2003, faster than any other ethnic group. This was largely because of the arrival of people born in China.

William Ong, the publisher of Chinatown magazine, said that the growth was being led by students. “Around 15 per cent of the UK student population is Chinese and there are 90,000 mainland Chinese students studying in the UK,” he said. “The majority like to stay to get some work experience here before they return to their own country. As they pay full fees, the student population is very welcome in this country.”

There had also been an influx from China of manual workers and economic migrants, some of them illegally. “The huge growth of cities such as Shanghai and Beijing has attracted in lots of people from rural areas, but they cannot all find jobs, so many are looking for work abroad in places such as Australia and England,” Mr Ong said.

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