Last Updated: December 16, 2023, 11:04 IST
London, United Kingdom (UK)
A Sikh boy marches in the annual Sikh Day Parade in New York, April 27, 2013. (Reuters)
2021 census reveals 97,910 British Sikhs chose ‘Sikh’ as their ethnicity. ONS data highlights the Sikh population in England and Wales
As many as 97,910 people in England opted for ‘Sikh’ as their chosen ethnicity, according to the data disclosed by the UK Office of National Statistics (ONS). This marked the first release of information on individuals identifying as Sikhs in the 2021 census in England and Wales.
Of this figure, 18.6% (97,910 people) identified themselves as ‘Sikh’ through both the ethnic and religious questions, 0.3% (1,725 people) exclusively through the ethnic question, and 81.1% (426,230 people) through the voluntary religion question. Of the people who identified as Sikh through ethnic group only, 55.4% did not report their religion, 13.6% reported their religion as Muslim, 12.5% reported no religion and 8.7% reported their religion as Christian.
Sikhs in England and Wales
Combining these numbers, the ONS concluded that there are a total of 5,25,865 Sikhs in England and Wales, showcasing a 22% increase from the 2011 census when 4,30,020 identified as ‘Sikh.’ This growth rate surpasses the general population increase of 6.3%.
Respondents had the option to choose from tick-box response categories to the ethnic group question, including “Indian” and “Pakistani,” with an additional “write-in box,” The Times of India reported. According to the TOI report, Dabinderjit Singh, principal adviser of the Sikh Federation (UK), had encouraged Sikhs to register a protest by rejecting the given options and writing in ‘Sikh.’ Some one hundred thousand Sikhs followed this suggestion, though Singh estimates the total number of Sikhs to be closer to nine hundred thousand.
The ONS data showed that the majority of those identifying as Sikh did so through the religion question, with 5,24,140 people, constituting 99.7% of all individuals who identified as Sikh. The census also revealed that 56.5% of Sikhs were born in England, 34.1% in India, and the next most common countries of birth were Kenya (2.5%) and Afghanistan (2.5%).
In England, the most common “national identity” for Sikhs was “British only” (75%), with 13% identifying as “Indian.” Sikhs exhibited higher rates of home ownership and marriage compared to the general population, but a higher percentage reported having no qualifications. “Home ownership rates were high among people who identified as Sikh, with most residents reporting owning their home outright or having a mortgage, loan or shared ownership (77.7%), compared with 62.7% of the England and Wales population,” according to ONS data.
People who identified as Sikh were more likely to be married than the England and Wales population (61.0% and 44.4%, respectively) and were more likely to have married younger. Meanwhile, people who identified as Sikh made up the majority of Panjabi speakers in England and Wales, where 63.9% of Panjabi speakers identified as Sikh.
