Geographic diversity
Brent the most ethnically diverse area
Ethnic Diversity: by local authority area, April 2001
Brent and Newham in London were the most ethnically diverse local authority areas in England and Wales in 2001, they scored 0.85 and 0.83 respectively on a diversity scale, representing an 85 per cent and 83 per cent chance that two people chosen at random would be from different ethnic groups. Brent's predominant ethnic groups were White British (29 per cent), Indian (18 per cent), Black Caribbean (10 per cent), Other White (9 per cent) and Black African (8 per cent).
Slough, Leicester and Luton were the most ethnically diverse local authorities outside London, with scores of 0.62, 0.57 and 0.56 respectively.
Easington in the North East had the lowest ethnic diversity score of all areas (0.02), representing a 2 per cent chance that two people chosen at random would belong to different ethnic groups.
Twenty eight local authorities in England and Wales were highly diverse (defined as having diversity scores of 0.50 or higher), with almost all (24) being London boroughs. However, most local authority areas were not ethnically diverse. Of the 376 local authorities, 223 (59 per cent) had diversity 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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