The figures, published yesterday, show that members of ethnic minorities, including mixed-race people, number 4.6 million out of the total 58.7 million population.

In England ethnic minorities comprise 9 per cent of the population, an increase of 3percentage points on the 1991 figure. Census officials said that part of the reason for the rise was that a new category of “mixed race” was included in the census form.

In two areas of London, Asians and blacks outnumber whites for the first time. Non-whites made up almost 60 per cent in the London borough of Newham and 55 per cent of the population of the London borough of Brent.

The East London borough of Tower Hamlets, home to a big Bangladeshi population, has a small white majority. On census day there were 48.6 per cent non-whites living in the district.

Overall the figures show that members of the ethnic minorities comprise 9 per cent of the population of England, 2 per cent in Scotland and 2.1 per cent in Wales.

London has the highest proportion of each ethnic minority group apart from Pakistanis, of whom there is a higher proportion in Yorkshire. About 60 per cent of the population in London is white British and it has the highest proportion of each of the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist religions.

Two per cent of the population of England and Wales are Indian, with Leicester having the highest proportion in the country at 25.7 per cent of the population.

Indians comprise 21 per cent of the population of the London borough of Harrow, 18 per cent of Brent, 17 per cent of Hounslow and 16 per cent in Ealing.

Pakistanis make up 1.4 per cent of the overall population and 14.5 per cent of the population of Bradford.

Bangladeshis form 0.5 per cent of the overall population but in Tower Hamlets they comprise one third of the population.

The proportion of people describing themselves as black Caribbean and black African also rose. In England and Wales 1.1 per cent of people are black Caribbean, 0.9 per cent black African and a further 0.2 per cent from other black groups.

Three Inner London boroughs have a black population with links to the Caribbean of more than 10 per cent. They are Hackney, Lewisham and Lambeth. In Southwark 16.1 per cent of the population was black African.

Chinese people form about 2 per cent of the population in Westminster, Cambridge, the City of London and Barnet in North London.

The figures show that almost 30 per cent of people in London were born outside the UK compared with 2.9 per cent in the North East.

The Irish make up 1.2 per cent of the population of England and Wales with the highest proportion living in Brent, where they make up almost 7 per cent of the population.

Beverley Bernard, acting chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said: “The data helps substitute myths with facts.”

She said the figures showed that many commentators had overestimated the size of the ethnic minority population. “The release of this data provides new insights into the UK’s multi-racial society,” she said.

She added that a recent MORI poll found that the public believed that members of the ethnic minorities made up 22.5 per cent of the population, almost three times the true figure.

Sir Andrew Green, of MigrationWatch, said: “These figures illustrate just how quickly and profoundly the character of some parts of our cities is changing. Indeed the changes will accelerate with the current record levels of immigration.

“The census figures should now stimulate an open and honest debate. We can no longer pretend it is not happening.”

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