Last updated: 30 December 2024
Next review: 30 December 2025
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Around one in four (39%) of Waltham Forest’s residents were born outside of the UK.
A similar proportion of Londoners were born outside the UK (41%), which is considerably higher than the England average (17%).
Source: Office for National Statistics, Census 2021 Data. Date accessed: 9 March 2023.
Around one in five residents (19%) were born in Europe (52,000 people in total). The number of European-born residents increased by 30%, from 40,000 to 52,000 since the 2011 Census.
Around 26,000 residents were born in the Middle East and Asia (9%); 17,000 were born in Africa (6%), and 11,000 were born in the Americas and the Caribbean (4%).
Source: Office for National Statistics – Census 2021 Data. Date accessed: 09 March 2023.
Table 1. Waltham Forest residents by country of birth, Census 2021
| Continent | World region | Count | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | United Kingdom | 171,100 | 61.5% |
| EU (from before March 2011) | 12,800 | 4.6% | |
| EU (from after March 2011) | 28,800 | 10.3% | |
| Pakistani | 28,700 | 10% | |
| Rest of Europe | 10,600 | 3.8% | |
| Africa | North Africa | 2,500 | 0.9% |
| Central and Western Africa | 6,700 | 2.4% | |
| South and Eastern Africa | 7,500 | 2.7% | |
| Middle East and Asia | Middle East | 1,300 | 0.5% |
| Eastern Asia | 1,800 | 0.6% | |
| Southern Asia | 19,800 | 7.1% | |
| South-East Asia | 2,800 | 1.0% | |
| Central Asia | 200 | 0.1% | |
| The Americas and the Caribbean | North America | 1,600 | 0.6% |
| Central America | 100 | 0.0% | |
| South America | 3,100 | 1.1% | |
| The Caribbean | 6,200 | 2.2% | |
| Antarctica and Oceania | Antarctica and Oceania | 1,600 | 0.6% |
| Total | All usual residents | 278,400 | 100.0% |
Source: Office for National Statistics – Census 2021. Data from https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021. Date accessed: 9 March 2023.
Pakistan and Romania are the top two non-UK countries of birth for Waltham Forest residents (slightly over 11,000 residents were born in each country).
Compared to the 2011 Census, the largest increase was in the number of Romanian-born residents (156% increase from 4,200 to 11,000 residents in 2021), whereas the number of Polish-born residents declined by 33% compared to 2011 (from 8,200 to 5,500).
Around 15% of Waltham Forest residents (40,000 in total) have arrived in the UK between 2011 and 2021. Of those who arrived between 2011 and 2021, majority were born in the other European countries (68%); 15% in the Middle East and Asia (predominantly Southern Asia); 8% in Africa; and 7% in the Americas and the Caribbean countries. Around 20,000 Waltham Forest residents had lived in the UK less than five years at the time of the 2021 Census.