ABSTRACT This paper employs data from the 2021 UK census to initially explore sub-state (English, Welsh) national identities among minority ethnic groups. This shows that these identities remain much more exclusive of people in minority groups than is a British identity, and that this exclusion is particularly marked with respect to English identity. The analysis then builds on this observation using similar data to examine English identification among the White British ‘majority’ in a ‘superdiverse’ city – London. Attributes which are typically shared by London boroughs in which identification as English deviates most from the national average, and multi-variable analysis which considers the ethnic structure of the borough in which an individual lives alongside other key factors (age, education, social class) suggest differences in identification between people living in boroughs that are characterised by more established and extensive ethnic diversity and those in boroughs transitioning from a previously more homogeneous (white) ethnic structure. In exploring how the articulation of a specific national identity might relate to ethnically-diverse or ‘superdiverse’ contexts, the paper uniquely contributes to recent research which calls for a stronger focus on how people who do not belong to migrant-minority groups might respond to living in such contexts.