Brent () is a borough in west and north-west London, England; it forms part of Outer London. It is known for landmarks such as Wembley Stadium, the Swaminarayan Temple and the Kiln Theatre. It also contains the Welsh Harp reservoir and the Park Royal commercial estate. The local authority is Brent London Borough Council.
Brent's population was estimated to be 353,000 as of 2024. Major districts are Kenton, Kilburn, Willesden, Wembley and Harlesden, with sub-districts Stonebridge, Kingsbury, Kensal Green, Neasden, and Queen's Park. Brent has a mixture of residential, industrial and commercial land. It includes many districts of inner-city character in the east and a more distinct suburban character in the west, part of which formed part of the early 20th century Metroland developments.
Local government Administrative history
The London Borough of Brent was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963, covering the combined area of the former Municipal Borough of Wembley and the Municipal Borough of Willesden. The area was transferred from Middlesex to Greater London to become one of the 32 London Boroughs.
The borough of Willesden had evolved from a local government district created in 1874 for the parish of Willesden. Such districts were reconstituted as urban districts under the Local Government Act 1894.
To coincide with the 1894 Act coming into force, an urban district called Wembley was created, covering the two parishes of Kingsbury and Wembley, the latter being created at the same time from areas formerly in the ancient parish of Harrow on the Hill. Kingsbury seceded from the Wembley Urban District in 1900 to become its own urban district, but was reunited with the Wembley Urban District in 1934. Willesden was incorporated to become a municipal borough in 1933, as was Wembley in 1937.
The modern borough takes its name from the River Brent which runs through the borough and separated the former boroughs of Wembley and Willesden.King, Rosamund & Barres-Baker, Malcolm - Britain in Old Photographs: The London Borough of Brent (Stroud, The History Press, 2011) p.4
Governance
The local authority is Brent Council, which is based at Brent Civic Centre in the Wembley Park area of the borough.
Greater London representation Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the Brent and Harrow constituency.
UK Parliament The borough is included in three parliamentary constituencies: Brent East, Brent West and Queen's Park and Maida Vale – which includes part of the City of Westminster. These were created by the 2023 review of Westminster constituencies, superseding the three previous constituencies of Brent North, Brent Central and Hampstead and Kilburn, which included part of the London Borough of Camden. Before the 2010 general election Brent was divided into three constituencies contained wholly within the borough – Brent South, Brent East and Brent North.
Demographics
In 1801, the civil parishes that form the modern borough had a total population of 2,022. This rose slowly throughout the nineteenth century, as the district became built up; reaching 5,646 in the middle of the century. When the railways arrived the rate of population growth increased. The population took five decades to rebound to the more muted peak of the 1950s, when much industry relocated from London, further boosting the speed of the wave of new housing then built.
Brent is the most diverse locality in the UK by country of birth. It in 2019 became the only local authority with over 50% of residents, namely 52%, born abroad.Local Area Migration Indicators, UK: Office for National Statistics. Published on 27 August 2020. Large Asian and Indian, Black African, Black Caribbean, Irish, and Eastern European communities exist. 45 per cent of the population was a minority ethnicity in the 1991 census, the most in England at the time. In 1991 17.2% were Indian, 10.2% were Black Caribbean and 9% were Irish. Brent was the only Outer London borough combining high proportions of Indian and Afro-Caribbean ethnicities.
The 2001 UK Census found that the borough had a population of 263,464 residents, of whom 127,806 were male, and 135,658 female. Of those stating a choice, 47.71% described themselves as Christian, 17.71% as Hindus, 12.26% as Muslims and 10% as having no religion. Among residents, 39.96% were in full-time employment and 7.86% in part-time employment – compared to a London average of 42.64% and 8.62%, respectively. Narrowly most residents included an owner-occupier in their household, with 23.17% of households owning their house outright, and a further 31.33% owning with a mortgage. 10.59% were in local authority housing, with a further 13.29% renting from a housing association, or other registered social landlord.Key Figures for 2001 Census: Census Area Statistics: Brent , neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk; accessed 25 February 2009.
The 2021 census found that the borough has England and Wales's lowest proportion of people born in the UK, at 43.9%.
The borough of Brent is extremely ethnically diverse, having changed greatly since 1951. In the 2011 census, those who identified as White British made up 18% of the borough's population. 18% identified as other White, 5% were of mixed heritage, those of South Asian heritage comprised about 33%, those of African and Caribbean heritage about 19%, and other ethnic groups about 7%. White ethnicities were relatively high in the wards of Mapesbury (straddling Willesden Green and Cricklewood), Brondesbury Park, Queen's Park and Kilburn. Black ethnicities in highest proportion were in Stonebridge, Harlesden and Kensal Green wards. Asian ethnicities in highest proportion were in the wards of Alperton, Wembley Central and Kenton.2011 Census data, accessed 4 November 2013. Those who ethnically identify as BAME (Black, Asian and minority Ethnic) was as high as 86% in Wembley Central – one of the highest in London – and most other Brent wards have a majority BAME population. Queen's Park had the lowest BAME proportion, at 37.0%.
Brent has the highest proportion of Irish residents in Britain, with 4% of the population. It also has the largest Brazilian community in the UK; one of the largest Indian communities; a significant Afro-Caribbean community; and more recent Romanian, Polish and Somali communities.https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/492406/response/1187217/attach/html/5/Brent Council Controlling Migration Fund application.pdf.html
The 2021 census showed that 1.3% of adults in Brent identified as transgender, derived from the Census question, "Is the gender you identify with the same as your sex registered at birth?". This gave Brent the second highest proportion of transgender adults after the Borough of Newham (at 1.5%). The overall proportion in England and Wales was 0.5% with Brighton, an area well known for its LGBT communities, 1%. However, Prof Michael Biggs of Oxford University showed there was a correlation between the proportion of transgender people in these areas and the proportion for whom English was not their first language (34% in Brent and 35% in Newham, compared to 9% nationally), suggesting the question was not fully understood by some. Prof Biggs described the figures as "irredeemably flawed". In September 2024, Mary Gregory, a deputy director at the ONS said some people may have misunderstood the question, saying there was "potential bias" in how the question was answered "by those who responded that they had lower levels of English proficiency, some of whom may have mistakenly given an answer suggesting they were trans". As a result, the ONS downgraded the data from "accredited official statistics" to "official statistics in development" to reflect the possible flaws.
Religion As of 2011, 41.5% identified themselves as Christian, 18.6% Muslim, 17.8% Hindu and 10.6% with no religion.Brent profile by religious adherence , http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk ; accessed 7 December 2014. Brent is home of the Neasden Temple, once the largest Hindu Mandir outside India; and JFS, the largest Jewish school in Europe. There is also an Islamic school called Islamia Primary School founded by Cat Stevens.
The following table shows the religious identity of residents residing in Brent according to the 2001, 2011 and the 2021 censuses.
Religion1995 estimates2001 census2011 census2021 censusNumber%Number%Number%Number% Christian–– 125,702 47.7 129,080 41.5 131,914 38.8 Muslim–– 32,290 12.3 58,036 18.6 72,574 21.4 Jewish10,1004.2% 6,464 2.5 4,357 1.4 3,723 1.1 Hindu–– 45,228 17.2 55,449 17.8 52,876 15.6 Sikh–– 1,738 0.7 1,709 0.5 1,530 0.5 Buddhism–– 2,497 0.9 4,300 1.4 3,117 0.9 Other religion–– 2,977 1.1 3,768 1.2 4,424 1.3 No religion––26,252 10.0 33,054 10.6 46,153 13.6 Religion not stated–– 20,316 7.7 21,462 6.9 23,506 6.9 Total –– 263,464 100.00% 311,215 100.00% 339,800 100.0%
Health According to the House of Commons survey of female genital mutilation, in the year to 31 March 2016, Brent represented the highest number of attendees, by current residence or visiting location, to medical services, at 1,250, 545 more than the next-highest local authority, Bristol.
In 2015, the BBC reported that some wards of Brent and four other London boroughs had rates of tuberculosis over ten times the national average, and higher than rates seen in Iraq and Rwanda.
Ethnicity
This table shows the stated ethnic group of respondents in the 1991 to 2021 censuses and estimates for 1966 and 1981 in Brent. Ethnic GroupYear1966 estimations1971 estimations1981 estimations1991 census2001 census2011 census2021 censusNumber%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%Number%White: Total–92.6%–82%152,64067.4%136,15054.8%119,27845.27%112,88036.27%117,70134.6% White: British–––––––– 76,893 29.19% 55,887 17.96%51,61115.2% White: Irish–––––––– 18,313 6.95% 12,320 3.96%9,3142.7% White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller–––––––– – – 320 0.10%2370.1%White: Roma––––––2,5200.7% White: Other–––––––– 24,072 9.14% 44,353 14.25%54,01915.9% Asian or Asian British: Total ––––39,35917.4%63,14125.4% 75,874 28.80% 105,986 34.06%111,51532.8% Asian or Asian British: Indian––––28,23812.5%43,230 17.4% 48,624 18.46% 58,017 18.64%66,15719.5% Asian or Asian British: Pakistani––––4,7142.1%7,565 3% 10,626 4.03% 14,381 4.62%15,2174.5% Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi––––434758 1,184 0.45% 1,749 0.56%2,1860.6% Asian or Asian British: Chinese––––1,9432,641 2,812 1.07% 3,250 1.04%3,3931.0% Asian or Asian British: Other Asian ––––4,0301.8%8,947 3.6% 12,628 4.79% 28,589 9.19%24,5627.2% Black or Black British: Total ––––29,82513.2%41,46716.7% 52,337 19.86% 58,632 18.84%59,49517.5% Black or Black British: African––––5,8882.6%10,305 4.1% 20,640 7.83% 24,391 7.84%31,0709.1% Black or Black British: Caribbean––––19,9328.8%25,618 10.3% 27,574 10.47% 23,723 7.62%21,2586.3% Black or Black British: Other Black––––4,0051.8%5,544 2.2% 4,123 1.56% 10,518 3.38%7,1672.1% Mixed or British Mixed: Total –––––––– 9,802 3.72% 15,775 5.07%17,2495.1% Mixed: White and Black Caribbean –––––––– 2,739 1.04% 4,291 1.38%3,7751.1% Mixed: White and Black African –––––––– 1,739 0.66% 2,820 0.91%3,1840.9% Mixed: White and Asian –––––––– 2,529 0.96% 3,642 1.17%3,6071.1% Mixed: Other Mixed –––––––– 2,795 1.06% 5,022 1.61%6,6832.0% Other: Total ––––4,7572.1%7,842 3.2% 6,173 2.34% 17,942 5.77%33,86110% Other: Arab –––––––– – – 11,430 3.67%17,9245.3% Other: Any other ethnic group ––––––– – – – 6,512 2.09%15,9374.7% Ethnic minority: Total –7.4%–18%73,94132.6%112,45045.2% 144,186 54.73% 198,335 63.73%222,12065.4% Total –100%–100%226,581100%248,600100% 263,464 100.00% 311,215 100.00%339,821100%
Immigration This list includes top-15 sources of immigration to Borough of Brent for 2021 census: