OVERVIEW - FACTS AND FIGURES

Since before slavery, black people have been living in Britain. But only in the last 50 years have blacks and Asians settled in these shores within any great number. Today they make up more than 5% of the British population. Currently, the UK population stands at about 59 million, according to the latest statistics published by the Office for National Statistics. Of these, 49 million (83.6%) live in England, 5 million (8.6%) in Scotland, 3 million (3.9%) live in Wales and 1.6 million (2.9%) live in Northern Ireland.

Figures for ethnic groups in the UK, published as part of Census 2001, shows a rapidly shifting demographic population of ethnic minority groups (around 5m of the total population of the UK)

The ethnic population is relatively young, it tends to cluster around urban metropolitan areas and is the fastest growing segment of the resident UK population.
The proportion of minority ethnic groups in England rose from 6% to 9% - partly as a result of the addition of mixed ethnic groups to the 2001 Census form. By the year 2010 over 30% of the population in metropolitan centres will be from ethnic communities.

Black African and Bangladeshi communities are the fastest growing of these populations. You would expect a higher proportion of black Africans are born outside the UK and an even higher proportion of Chinese whereas the majority of the white population has been born in the UK.

In the US, it was projected that non-whites would comprise 28% of the U.S. population by the year 2000. That number is expected to rise to 39% by 2030 and to 48% by 2050 (Andorfer, 1996)

As participants in policy development for organizations, public relations professionals have an obligation to keep their companies aware of emerging trends and the impact of those trends on the way in which business is conducted.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/nojournal/GuideV9.pdf