Geographic diversity
Harrow the most religiously diverse area
Religious Diversity: by local authority area, April 2001
The London borough of Harrow was the most religiously diverse local authority area in England and Wales in 2001. It had a diversity score of 0.62, representing a 62 per cent chance that two people drawn at random would be from different religious groups. Just under half of the local population of Harrow were Christian (47 per cent), 20 per cent were Hindu, 7 per cent were Muslim and 6 per cent were Jewish.
Within London, the boroughs of Brent, Redbridge, Barnet, Newham, Ealing and Tower Hamlets had high religious diversity (defined as having scores of 0.50 or higher). Outside London, Leicester was the most religiously diverse with a score of 0.59. The areas with the lowest levels of religious diversity (0.01) were Allerdale and Knowsley in the North West, Sedgefield and Berwick upon Tweed in the North East, and Ryedale in Yorkshire and the Humber.
Only 11 local authorities (3 per cent) in England and Wales had high levels of religious diversity in 2001 (with scores of 0.50 or higher). In contrast, around three quarters (77 per cent) of local authorities in England and Wales had low religious diversity, with scores of 0.11 or less.
Source: Census 2001, Office for National Statistics
Notes:
The Fractionalisation Index of diversity produces scores that represent the probability that two people chosen at random within a given area will belong to different groups. The index has values from 0 to 1 with 0 indicating no diversity (everyone from the same group) and 1 indicating total diversity (everyone from a different group). For this analysis, scores are classed as highly diverse if they are 0.5 or higher, as this indicates a 50 per cent chance of above that two people drawn at random would be from a different ethnic group.
In the context of this overview, the term 'local authority' includes areas categorised as counties, unitary authorities, non-metropolitan districts and metropolitan districts.
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