The census, which takes place every 10 years and provides information on all people and residences in England and Wales, took place on 21 March 2021. According to data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in 2021, 91.1% (52.6 million) of ordinary residents aged three and over had English as their mother tongue (English or Welsh in Wales) (2011 92.3% or 49.8 million). In 2021, 7.1% (4.1 million) of the general population were proficient in English (English or Welsh in Wales) but did not speak it as a mother tongue.
Londra Gazete analysed data from the Census 2021, which showed 112 thousand 971 people in England and Wales Turkish as their main language.
The highest region of Turkish speakers was in London with all of the top 10 and the highest per cent of Turkish speaking found within the capital:
- Enfield – 18,765 – 5.91%
- Haringey – 9,581 – 3.76%
- Hackney – 8,008 — 3.21%
- Islington – 3,560 -1.70%
- Waltham Forest – 3,460 – 1.30%
- Barnet- 2,336 -0.62%
- Lewisham – 1,822 – 0.63%
- Richmond Upon Thames- 1,446 – 0.77%
- Greenwich 1.454 – 0.52%
- Southwark- 1.452 – 0.49%
The lowest Turkish-speaking regions in England and Wales :
1- Isles of Scilly – 0
2- Richmondshire- 2 – 0.0%
3- Craven – 5 – 0.0%
4- Ribble Valley- 5 – 0.0%
5- Hambleton- 7 – 0.1%
6- Rossendale -8 –0.01%
7- Malvern Hills – 9 0.01%
8- South Hams- 10 – 00.1%
9- Melton – 11 -0.02%
10- Torridge- 11 – 0.02%
Londra Gazete reached out to ONS and a spokesperson said that no data was available for all multilingual speakers, who would have marked their main languages as English but speak Turkish as well.
The most common main languages other than English (English or Welsh in Wales) was: Polish (1.1%, 612,000), Romanian (0.8%, 472,000), Panjabi (0.5%, 291,000) and Urdu (0%).(5, 270,000). The biggest increase was seen in people who stated Romanian as their main language, accounting for more than 0.8% (472,000) of regular residents in 2021, up 0.1% (68,000) in 2011.
People who did not report English (English or Welsh in Wales) as their mother tongue were asked to rate how well they could speak English (8.9%, 5.1 million). Of these 5.1 million people, 43.9% (2.3 million) can speak English very well, 35.8% (1.8 million) can speak English well, 17.1% (880,000) can speak English well but do not speak English well, and 3.1% (161,000) do not speak English.
Assistance was provided through translation services for non-native English-speaking households in completing the census questionnaire, and translation brochures were provided in more than 50 languages.
In England, Polish (1.1%, 591,000) was the most common main language for those who did not speak English as a main language. At a regional level, the highest percentage of people who had Polish as a main language was in the East Midlands (1.5%, 71,000). The percentage of people with Polish as a main language varied across local authorities from 0.1% (100) in Castle Point to 5.7% (4,000) in Boston.
The next most common main language in England was Romanian (0.9%, 466,000). The region with the highest percentage of people who reported Romanian as a main language was London (1.9%, 159,000). In particular, the local authority of Harrow had the highest percentage of its population reporting Romanian as a main language (7.5%, 19,000).