Welcome. Nothing annoys clergy more than being told ‘this must be your busy time of the year’, as though they had nothing to do the rest of the time. Nonetheless, I recognise that many readers will feel time-pressed at the moment, so this blog is a fairly brief summary of the main 2021 Census findings. The ‘Add Ons’ also includes (trigger warning for football-phobes) the explanation for England’s World Cup defeat.
This will be the last ‘Out of Many . . .’ blog until Tuesday, January 10th. Meanwhile may your heart sing with joy at the coming of Jesus, and as you welcome 2023 may your fears and anxieties be infused with resurrection hope. And pray for the people of Ukraine and Iran.
Ethnic Groups in the 2021 Census.
The first preliminary results of the 2021 Census for England and Wales have now appeared with fairly brief summaries on ethnicity and religion.
As a preliminary it is worth heading the summary’s comment: “Ethnicity is multi-dimensional and subjective, with various ways in which a person may choose to define their ethnic group. This may include common ancestry, elements of culture, identity, religion, language and physical appearance. It is generally accepted that ethnic group does include all these aspects, and others in combination.”
The main headline results for ethnicity are:
* The decreasing proportion of white British people.
The indigenous ‘white British’ group are 74.4% of the population. This means that typically out of a group of 8 people they would provide 6, contrasting quite starkly with the 2001 census when 7 of the group of 8 would be ‘white British (87.5%).
* The marked growth of the ‘other white’ population.
Most notably, the ‘other white’ group have grown from 2.5 million to 3.7 million. They form 6.2% of the population, with 1% identifying as Polish & 0.6% as Romanian.
* The marked growth of the ‘Any Other Ethnic Group’.
This has almost tripled from 2011 to form 1.6% of the population (924,000); with 76,000 registering both as Hispanic/Latin American, and as Kurdish.
* Africans are now the largest black group.
The number registering as ‘Caribbean’ dropped slightly to form only 1% of the population, only slightly larger than the ‘White and Black Caribbean’ Mixed Group. The ‘Other Black’ group were 0.5%. However the ‘African’ population increased to 2.5% of the population (1.5 mill) from 1.8% over the past decade. The numbers registering as Nigerian were271,000; Somali 151,000; Ghanaian 113,000.
* Continuing ‘Asian’ increase.
This rose to 9.3% (5.5 mill) from 7.5% in 2011. Bangladeshi, Indian and especially Pakistani groups all increased substantially, whereas the Chinese percentage stayed static, and ‘Other Asian’ (Sri Lankan proportion?) increased only slightly.
* Multi-ethnic households.
Of the 24.8 million households in England and Wales, just over 30% were one person only. Of the rest 1 in 7 (2.5 mill) included two or more ethnic groups, of which 1.4 million were ‘partnerships’.
Conclusions.
1. At the risk of hammering the point, the census underlines the significance of ‘superdiversity’, thus the increase in ‘Other’ groups, notably ‘Other White’ and ‘Any Other Ethnic Group’, and also ‘Other Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Group’, with other ‘Mixed’ combinations of identity are also increasing, and being reflected in the continuing growth of multi-ethnic households.
2. High public (and church) profiles do not necessarily reflect population sizes. This particularly true of the numerically static Caribbean or ‘Other Black’ largely Christian background populations, especially set against the continuing strong growth of largely ‘other faith’ South Asian populations. This calls into question ‘From Lament to Action’s’ setting of goals for exceptionally high UKME/GMH proportionate representation in Church of England leadership.
3. Finally, the stand-out statistic is the decline of the ‘White English’ proportion of the population, and the major challenge for churches to develop pastoral and evangelistic policies that will take them outside their historic base.
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Add Ons
Review of 2022 – Two Great Political Sermons.
I love lists and nostalgia, so here’s my contribution:
* Les Isaac’s down-to-earth, biblical and challenging Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast sermon had repercussions surely beyond the planner’s wildest dreams, and by dislodging Sajid Javid’s shaky loyalty to Boris Johnson finally brought down the whole, contemptable edifice.
* The Archbishop of Canterbury’s outstanding sermon at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II had less obvious immediate impact, but in 4.5 minutes masterfully covered both the pastoral and personal issues yet also gave the world’s assembled politicians a challenging biblical political theory to think on.
The World Cup.
As ever it was a living example of how ethnically jumbled are a great many of the nations of the world; meanwhile here is my explanation of why we are out:
France 2 England 1: I blame Lord Lugard.
Frederick John Dealtry Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard, GCMG CB DSO PC, was Governor General of Nigeria from 1914-19, and was the architect of ‘indirect rule’; the British colonial policy, by which rather than exercising direct authority over Africans, as did French colonial policy, considerable authority for day-to-day government lay with traditional rulers. Travelling in West Africa, the historian Margery Perham noted the resulting difference between the prestige of the emirs of northern Nigeria, and the lowly circumstances of their equivalents across the border in French West Africa.
Divergences of British and French policy have continued through the times of migration, with the consequence that on Saturday France lined up with five players with immediate African roots, England with just one. (Bukayo Sako, who performed far better than the much-hyped Kylian Mbappe).
The downstream impact of Lugard’s policies is that west Africans in Britain tend to maintain a fairly distinct identity - Sako with his raft of ‘A’s at GCSE and his explicit Christian faith is an untypical English footballer. By contrast, French colonies had been much more closely bound to France; for example, electing directly to the French Parliament. The result is a much closer love/hate relationship, whether fully integrating on the one hand, or sullenly aggrieved at the disregard for their separate cultural and religious identities on the other. The French national census has never inquired about ethnicity: ‘we are all French; what else do we need to know?’
Multicultural societies require an instinct for finding the right blend of similarity and separateness. Britain’s greater acceptance of African separateness has meant that for the early generations of West Africans in Britain getting involved in the nation’s game was seen as a harmful distraction from the need for a good education and a decent job. It is only in the last decade that African background players have begun to make a significant entry into the top ranks of English football. In contrast, the French emphasis on similarity has meant that young Africans quickly picked up on playing football as a route to peer acceptance, so that the nation draws on rich seams of African footballing talent, even from communities with deep-seated resentments.
The outcome is that Lord Lugard and his ‘indirect rule’ policy should take the blame for our 2-1 defeat. At least, that’s a wiser response than hanging an effigy of Harry Kane outside your local pub, or calling Gareth Southgate a ‘turnip’.