Other related sources of information

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Census Translations

The 2001 population census didn’t ask about languages spoken in the population. However, the census team needed to decide which languages the census forms and information leaflets needed to be translated into. Consultations were carried out with Local Authorities throughout England and Wales to ascertain the language assistance required in their areas, and advice from ethnicity and language-need experts was sought. As a consequence, Census information leaflets and questions were translated into the following 24 languages:

1. Albanian /Kosovan
2. Arabic*
3. Bengali*
4. Chinese (*Cantonese)
5. Croatian
6. Farsi /Persian
7. French
8. German
9. Greek*
10. Gujarati*
11. Hindi*
12. Italian*
13. Japanese
14. Polish
15. Portuguese
16. Punjabi*
17. Russian
18. Serbian
19. Somali*
20. Spanish
21. Swahili
22. Turkish*
23. Urdu*
24. Vietnamese*
* A dedicated language line with bilingual operators was set up for the languages starred above.

Source website: Census, 2001

Census maps of ethnic minority communities in the UK

Various interactive maps highlighting the location and spread of ethnic groups across the UK have been produced from the census 2001 results.

Access the Guardian map of ethnic minority communities in the UK

Access the BBC immigration map of Britain with regional data

A downloadable map and key is available from the Guardian for the London boroughs from the links below:

Guardian map of London - ethnic minority communities (pdf document)

Guardian map of London - ethnicity key to the map (rtf document)

Central Office of Information (COI) review

In 2003, the COI Strategic Consultancy Inclusivity team was commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to undertake a review of the ethnic minority languages used by the department. The objectives were to understand the communication needs of each community and make recommendations into which languages DWP information should be translated.

The priority recommended key ethnic minority languages (not specified in any order) were noted as:

1. Bengali
2. Punjabi
3. Gujerati
4. Urdu
5. Arabic
6. Classical Chinese
7. Somali
8. French
9. Polish
10. Tamil

Please note that this was desk research analysing Census and LFS data on nationality and country of birth and so can give indications for languages spoken only.

View the summary report: Communicating to ethnic minority communities: recommended languages for translation

View the guidance document: Engaging marginalized communities:
Communication Guide

Source website: Central Office of Information

Multilingual capital – London only

Over 300 different languages are spoken by London schoolchildren. The top 40 languages spoken by pupils in London are given below with the approximate total number of pupils for each language.

This comes from a survey of 850,000 children in London schools carried out by LEAs in 1998-9. See the publication for more details, analysis by borough and some commentary on the London population.

The top 40 languages spoken by pupils in London:

English 608,500
Bengali & Sylheti 40,400
Panjabi 29,800
Gujarati 28,600
Hindi/Urdu 26,000
Turkish 15,600
Arabic 11,000
English-based Creoles 10,700
Yoruba (Nigeria) 10,400
Somali 8,300
Cantonese 6,900
Greek 6,300
Akan (Ashanti) 6,000
Portuguese 6,000
French 5,600
Spanish 5,500
Tamil (Sri Lanka) 3,700
Farsi (Persian) 3,300
Italian 2,500
Vietnamese 2,400
Igbo (Nigeria) 1,900
French-based Creoles 1,800
Tagalog (Filipino) 1,600
Kurdish 1,400
Polish 1,500
Swahili 1,000
Lingala (Congo) 1,000
Albanian 900
Luganda (Uganda) 800
Ga (Ghana) 800
Tigrinya (Sudan) 800
German 800
Japanese 800
Serbian/Croatian 700
Russian 700
Hebrew 650
Korean 550
Pashto (Afganistan) 450
Amharic (Ethiopia) 450
Sinhala (Sri Lanka) 450

Source website: Baker, P. and Eversley, J. (eds) (2000) Multilingual Capital, London: Battlebridge.

Health Survey for England (HSE)

The HSE is a continuous survey that had a minority ethnic boost (adults only) in 1999 and main language spoken was asked. Results of language spoken by ethnicity were analysed and reported on as follows:

Black Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Chinese respondents were asked what was their main spoken language. Virtually all the Black Caribbeans (99%) said that it was English. Among Indians, while the majority spoke English as their main language (55%), significant minorities spoke Punjabi (20%) and Gujarati (19%). Fewer than half of Pakistanis (45%) and Chinese (41%) spoke English as their main language. Other languages spoken by significant proportions of Pakistanis were Punjabi (32%) and Urdu (20%). Half of Chinese respondents named Cantonese as their main spoken language. Bangladeshis were least likely to name English as their main spoken language - only 20% did so. The main languages spoken by Bangladeshis were Bengali (54%) and Sylheti (25%).

Table: Main language spoken by minority ethnic group

Source (full report): 1999 Health Survey for England.

The minority ethnic boost was repeated in 2004. The survey is commissioned by the Department of Health and carried out by The National Centre for Social Research.

The Information centre about asylum and refugees (ICAR) in the UK

ICAR is an independent information and research organisation based in the School of Social Sciences at City University in London. Their website aims to provide up-to-date information on current issues around asylum and refugees. ICAR have produced some navigation guides on specific communities in the UK including Algerians, Colombians, Kosovars and Somalis. ICAR are also attempting to map refugee settlement in specific towns and cities in the UK. See the statistics available on their website alongside the Mapping the UK section.

Multicultural London:

Researching Asylum in London (RAL) is an independent database of research on refugee and asylum issues relevant to London only.

Visit London has published information on London’s diverse communities including free downloadable guides.

The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language

For a comprehensive guide to world languages the Cambridge encyclopedia of Language, David Crystal (1997) Cambridge University Press, has a chapter on the languages of the world. It details the range of languages in past or present use - numbers, speakers and sources. The chapter quotes that there is no agreed total for the number of languages spoken in the world today. Most reference books give a figure of 5,000 to 6,000, but estimates have varied from 3,000 to 10,000. The chapter then goes on to discuss the issues. Speaker estimates for the world's top 40 languages are provided based on the number of mother-tongue speakers.

Source website: The Cambridge encyclopedia of Language, David Crystal (1997) Cambridge University Press.

BBC sources

BBC Multilingual Nation contains information about languages spoken in the British Isles.
BBC Languages across Europe provides some country and language profiles across Europe.