Ethnic groups of the United Kingdom

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There are a number of ethnic groups of the United Kingdom.

Many of the ethnic minorities of Britain arrived shortly after World War II when a labour shortage provided job vacancies that could not be filled by British workers. ^{[citation needed]} Many people from parts of the then Empire arrived in Britain. The "Empire Windrush" was a famous ship that brought people from the Caribbean.

Other minorities were already present in the United Kingdom. Irish Catholics are of course native to Northern Ireland, but other Irish had migrated to Britain over the years, especially during the famine years. Major UK cities tend to have large Irish communities.

Many Polish people had come over to the UK during the Second World War, and did not return after the Communist takeover of their homeland. Since Poland's entry to the European Union, many thousands of Poles have migrated to the UK.^{[citation needed]} Many Italians had also come over as prisoners of war but decided to stay in the UK rather than return to Italy.^{[citation needed]}

The Jewish community, however, mostly left the UK to go and live in the new state of Israel or the United States at the end of the Second World War.^{[citation needed]}

There have been recent calls for the 2011 national census to include extra tickboxes in Category "A" (in addition to the current tick boxes for "British", "Irish", or "Any other White background"), as there have been claims of racial discrimination by some Welsh, English, and Cornish people. There was some confusion due to the fact that one first had to deny being British, by crossing out the British option, and then writing "Welsh", "English", or "Cornish" in the "Any other" category. The Office for National Statistics recognises that many people want to distinguish themselves as Welsh, English or Cornish and not just "British" in the 2011 census and is considering adding extra tickboxes for this purpose - (see external links for details).