Luton, Bedfordshire, England is an ethnically and culturally diverse town of 203,201 people. It is primarily urban, with a population density of . Luton has seen several waves of immigration. In the early part of the 20th century, there was immigration of Irish and Scottish people to the town. These were followed by Afro-Caribbean and Asian immigrants. More recently immigrants from other European Union countries have made Luton their home. As a result of this Luton has a diverse ethnic mix, with a significant population of Asian descent, mainly Pakistani 29,353 (14.4%) and Bangladeshi 13,606 (6.7%).
Since the 2011 census, Luton has had a white British population less than 50%, one of three towns in the United Kingdom along with Leicester and Slough. Luton has a majority white population, when non-British white people such as the Irish and Eastern Europeans are included. Identity wise, 81% of the population of Luton define themselves as British of any race.
Ethnicity
The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents for estimations for 1971 and in the 1991 to 2021 censuses in Luton.
There was likely 600 to 700 'coloured' people within Luton in 1958, around 300 of these being Afro-Caribbeans, 250 Pakistanis and 60 Indians.
Luton is a majority minority town in which no single ethnic group make up the majority of residents, however by broad multi-ethnic groups, Whites make up 54.7% of the population, a decline of 25.5% from 1991 when Whites made up 4 out of every 5 residents (80.2%). Asian British people have grown in proportional size, having gone from 14% in 1991 to nearly one third of the town's population (30%) in 2011. Black British residents have also increased from nearly 5% to nearly 10% in two decades as well as Mixed residents who have gone from 2.6% in 2001 to 4.1% in 2011.
Ethnic Group1971 estimations1981 estimations1991 censusData is taken from United Kingdom Casweb Data services of the United Kingdom 1991 Census on Ethnic Data for England, Scotland and Wales (Table 6)2001 census2011 census2021 censusNumber%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%White: Total148,06193.3%135,05884.4%139,55479.9%132,56671.90%111,07954.66%101,79845.2% White: British–––– – – 119,793 64.97% 90,530 44.55%71,53231.8% White: Irish––––9,266 5.4% 8,569 4.65% 6,126 3.01%4,5702.0% White: Gypsy or Irish TravellerNew category created for the 2011 census–––– – – – – 198 0.10%2380.1% White: Roma––––––––––8080.4% White: Other–––– – – 4,204 2.28% 14,225 7.00%24,65010.9%Asian or Asian British: Total––16,74810.5%24,84914.2%34,77318.86%60,95230%83,32537.1% Asian or Asian British: Indian––57237422 7,538 4.09% 10,625 5.23%12,0965.4% Asian or Asian British: Pakistani––7,23810,987 17,012 9.23% 29,353 14.45%41,14318.3% Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi––2,5764,819 7,641 4.14% 13,606 6.70%20,6309.2% Asian or Asian British: ChineseIn 2001, listed under the 'Chinese or other ethnic group' heading.––582676 1,096 0.59% 1,497 0.74%9010.4% Asian or Asian British: Other Asian ––629945 1,486 0.81% 5,871 2.89%8,5553.8%Black or Black British: Total––6,9634.3%8,5664.9%11,6846.34%19,9099.80%22,73510% Black or Black British: African––497634 3,204 1.74% 9,169 4.51%11,7745.2% Black or Black British: Caribbean––53086420 7,653 4.15% 8,177 4.02%8,2163.6% Black or Black British: Other Black––11581512 827 0.45% 2,563 1.26%2,7451.2%Mixed: Total––––––4,7282.56%8,2814.08%9,6204.3% Mixed: White and Black Caribbean –––– – – 2,414 1.31% 3,831 1.89%3,4861.5% Mixed: White and Black African –––– – – 389 0.21% 915 0.45%1,2680.6% Mixed: White and Asian –––– – – 1,058 0.57% 1,805 0.89%2,4291.1% Mixed: Other Mixed –––– – – 867 0.47% 1,730 0.85%2,4371.1%Other: Total––1,2320.8%1,6311%6200.34%2,9801.47%7,7833.4% Other: ArabNew category created for the 2011 census–––– – – – – 1,646 0.81%2,1060.9% Other: Any other ethnic group –––––– 620 0.34% 1,334 0.66%5,6772.5%Ethnic minority: Total10,6946.7%24,943 15.6%35,04620.1%51,80528.1%92,12245.3%123,46354.8%Total158,755100%160,001 100%174,600100%184,371100%203,201100%225,261100%
Notes
Distribution
Ethnicity of school pupils Luton's schools are majority-minority, that being no single ethnic group makes up the majority, the single largest group is British Pakistanis at 25.1% of the school pupil population and the largest multi-ethnic group being Asian British people at 47.4% in 2022, which was previous White's at 53.5% in 2004. The white White British population has declined from a near majority in 2004 at 49.5% to 17.2% in 2022. Black British people and Mixed people have also increased. However, other ethnicities have declined from a peak of 3.7% in 2016 to 2.2% in 2022. Ethnic groupSchool year197120042015/162021/2022Number%Number%Number%Number%White: Total–92.7%14,90053.5%7,28529.4%12,23030.2%White: British––13,78049.5%4,22917.1%6,97217.2%White: Irish––550112154White: Traveller of Irish heritage––403444White: Gypsy/Roma––20151169White: Other––5102,7594,891Asian / Asian British: Total––8,14029.3%12,08948.8%19,18547.4%Asian / Asian British: Indian––9503.4%8883.6%1,5713.9%Asian / Asian British: Pakistani––4,09014.7%6,17724.9%10,16325.1%Asian / Asian British: Bangladeshi––2,080 1494,998Asian / Asian British: Chinese––904687Asian / Asian British: Other Asians––9301,2352,366Black / Black British: Total––2,5109%2,1408.6%3,9959.9%Black: Caribbean––1,3203271,013Black: African––9501,6532,613Black: Other Blacks––250160369Mixed / British Mixed––1,7506.3%2,1058.5%3,6769.1%Other: Total––1700.6%9093.7%8902.2%Unclassified––390266475Non-White: Total–7.3%Total:–100%27,840100%24,794100%40,451100%
Country of birth
Languages The most common main languages spoken in Luton according to the 2011 census are shown in the following table.
Rank Language Usual residents aged 3+ Proportion 1 English 153,463 79.43% 2 Urdu 8,567 4.43% 3 Polish 8,006 4.14% 4 Bengali 6,337 3.28% 5 Punjabi 2,203 1.14% 6 Gujarati 1,714 0.89% 7 Arabic 1,037 0.54% 8 Lithuanian 698 0.36% 9 Tamil 653 0.34% 10 Tagalog/Filipino 524 0.27% 11 Shona 489 0.25% 12 Hindi 484 0.25% 13 French 439 0.23% 14 Portuguese 397 0.21% 15 Slovak 352 0.18% 16 Italian 342 0.18% 17 Romanian 340 0.18% 18 Russian 324 0.17% 19 Malayalam 316 0.16% 20 Pashto 293 0.15% Other 6,217 3.22%
Religion
The following table shows the religion of respondents in the 2001, 2011 and 2021 censuses in Luton.
Religion200120112021Number%Number%Number% Christian 109,973 59.65% 96,271 47.38% 85,297 37.87% Buddhist 456 0.25% 652 0.32% 6640.3% Hindu 5,025 2.73% 6,749 3.32% 7,438 3.30% Jewish 534 0.29% 326 0.16% 246 0.1% Muslim 26,963 14.62% 49,991 24.60% 74,191 32.94% Sikh 1,487 0.81% 2,347 1.16% 3,032 1.35% Other religion 642 0.35% 898 0.44% 1,115 0.5% No religion 25,960 14.08% 33,594 16.53% 39,580 17.57% Religion not stated 13,331 7.23% 12,373 6.09% 13,697 6.08% Total 184,371 100.00% 203,201 100.00% 225,262 100.0
Distribution
See also
Demographics of the United Kingdom Demographics of England Demographics of London Demographics of Birmingham Demographics of Greater Manchester List of English cities by population List of English districts by population List of English districts and their ethnic composition List of English districts by area List of English districts by population density
References