Census shows 10 per cent of white Brits left Blackburn since 2011

The figures, released by the Office for National Statistics, show that while the population of the district as a whole has risen by 4.9 per cent to 154,741, there are vast differences in how different communities have grown – and shrunk – in the past 10 years.

The largest ethnic group in Blackburn with Darwen is White British, which will come as no surprise, making up 56.9 per cent of the district’s population – 87,997 people.

However, the number of people identifying as White British has dropped by 10 per cent since 2011, with 10,147 people either leaving the area or changing how they view their ethnicity.

Darwen Town Centre

The second largest ethnic group is Asian or British Asian: Pakistani, with 27,525 people identifying as this ethnicity in the district.

This number is up by 54.6 per cent from 2011, with 9,724 more people stating this as their ethnicity in the census.

Asian or British Asian: Indian is the third largest community in the towns, making up 24,389 people. This group has also grown since 2011 by 23.2 per cent.

The number of people identifying as Black or Black British: African has also gone up by 72.8 per cent, with 1,061 residents marking this as their ethnicity on the census, while Black or Black British: Other has also gone up by 49.6 per cent.

Some of the largest rises can be seen in people identifying as being of dual heritage.

Numbers have gone up for people marking their ethnicity as Mixed: White and Asian (34.4 per cent), Mixed: White and Black African (42.6 per cent), Mixed: White and Black Caribbean (16.8 per cent) and Mixed: Other (87.1 per cent).

Other: White – which would include Continental Europe and North America, for example – has seen a rise of 56.8 per cent, to 4,562 people, while the number people identifying as Arab has gone up by 43.8 per cent to 841.

Population numbers in 2011 (orange) and 2021 (blue) (Image: Newsquest)

The ethnic group listed on the census that has seen the largest rise is Any Other Ethnic Group, which covers any not previously listed, which has more than doubled (105.9 per cent) to 1,328.

The number of Black or Black British: Caribbean residents has fallen by 15.8 per cent, while people identifying as Chinese, Bangladeshi, Other Asian, Irish, and Gypsy or Irish Traveller have all fallen, with the Chinese community seeing the biggest drop, of 44.5 per cent.

There were 143 people who identified as Roma in 2021, but no statistics for 2011 were available.