Islam, ethnicity and South Asian religions in the London 2001 census

Abstract

The paper examines the relative strengths of the cross‐cutting variables of religion and ethnicity. British Muslims are often referred to as if they were a single community. The 2001 Censuses of England and Wales and Scotland demonstrate that Muslims are ethnically heterogeneous. Ethno‐religious ward‐level data for London from the 2001 census are used to test whether Islam binds together peoples of different ethnicity or whether ethnicity links groups despite religious differences. London Muslims, as a whole, are much less segregated than Sikhs, Jews or Hindus. Paradoxically this low level of overall segregation is produced by high intra‐Muslim ethnic segregation. Intra South‐Asian mixing irrespective of religion is greater than intra‐Muslim mixing, irrespective of ethnicity. Intra‐Black mixing is high irrespective of religion, while religion over‐rides race and ethnicity for Christian groups.