Race and Ethnicity

This topic area covers statistics and information relating to population estimates for people from ethnic minority backgrounds in Hull including local strategic need and service provision. Further information relating to health, wellbeing and lifestyle risk factors is given within our Adult Health and Wellbeing Surveys within Tools and Resources. Where information is available which relates to people from different ethnic minority backgrounds, it is given for specific topic areas within this Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. Information is included within Children with Special Education Needs or Disabilities, on specific diseases and medical conditions including COVID-19 under Health Factors under Adults, within Schools, Education and Qualifications, etc.

Ethnic minorities refers to all ethnic minority groups combined except the white British group, and therefore ethnic minorities includes white minorities.

Headlines

• In the 2021 Census, it was estimated that 91.8% of Hull’s residents were white with 83.9% being white British, 0.2% white Irish, 0.2% white Gypsy or Irish Traveller, 0.1% Roma and 7.4% from other white backgrounds. Overall, 1.7% of people were from a mixed ethnic background, 2.8% were Asian or British Asian, 1.9% were black, black British, Caribbean or African, 0.5% Arabs and 1.3% from other ethnic minority backgrounds.
• Whilst the percentage of people from ethnic minority backgrounds is relatively low in Hull compared to the England average, although the percentages have increased in Hull over the last couple of decades.
• In the 2001 Census, it was estimated that 2.3% of Hull’s population were from ethnic minority backgrounds excluding white minority backgrounds and 3.6% were from ethnic minority backgrounds including white minorities, but this increased to 5.9% and 10.3% respectively in the 2011 Census and to 8.2% and 16.1% respectively in the 2021 Census.
• In 2021, it was estimated that 223,962 Hull residents were white British, 21,027 from white minorities mainly Eastern European, and 22,024 from ethnic minorities (excluding white minorities). Overall, 43,051 Hull residents were from ethnic minority backgrounds.
• In 2021, 232,049 (86.9%) of Hull’s residents had been born in the UK, 9,058 (3.4%) had been born in Poland, 3,602 (1.3%) in Romanian, 1,865 (0.7%) in Latvia, 1,774 (0.7%) in Lithuania, 1,430 (0.5%) in Iraq, 974 (0.4%) in Germany, 882 (0.3%) in Nigeria and 850 (0.3%) had been born in India.
• Between 2011 and 2021, the largest increases in ethnicity occurred for Arab and other ethnic groups, other white, other black, black African and Bangladeshi.
• The percentage of ethnic minority population in Hull differs dramatically across Hull’s 21 electoral wards, and the ethnic minority population also differs by age group with higher percentage of residents from ethnic minority backgrounds among younger people (21.1% among 0-4 year olds compared to 13.5% among those aged 30+ years).
• The percentage of children from ethnic minorities attending Hull schools has increased from 9.1% in 2010 to 21.5% in 2020 with around 8,805 children attending Hull schools from ethnic minorities.
• From the January 2021 school census, 78.1% of pupils were white British, 9.8% of pupils were from other white backgrounds, 4.0% pupils were from mixed ethnic backgrounds, 2.0% pupils were black British, Caribbean or African, 1.8% pupils were Asian or Asian British, 3.0% were from other ethnic backgrounds, and 1.4% did not have their ethnicity unclassified. A total of 9,246 (21.9%) pupils were from ethnic minorities which was considerably lower than England (35.1%).
• Among state-funded mainstream schools in Hull for 2023/24, 19.7% of primary school, 16.0% of secondary school and 9.0% of special school pupils first language was not English. Whilst these percentages are lower than England (22.8%, 18.6% and 14.4% respectively), there difference between Hull and England appear to be reducing over time. The figures were 16.9%, 13.6% and 6.0% for 2020/21 respectively so numbers have increased in Hull in recent years. For the 2023/24 school year, this equates to 4,934 primary, 2,717 secondary and 72 special school pupils whose first language is not English. However, across Hull’s schools, the percentages varied dramatically from 1.6% to 17.% among Hull’s six special schools, from 2.5% to 70.0% for Hull’s 71 primary maintained and academy schools, and from 2.5% to 46.7% for Hull’s 13 academy secondary schools.
• Nine in ten residents in Hull aged 3+ years at the time of the Census spoken English as their main language (first or preferred language) with 3.3% speaking Polish, 1.3% speaking Romanian, 0.6% speaking Lithuanian, 0.5% speaking Arabic and 0.5% speaking Kurdish.
• Around 7,500 residents of Hull aged 3+ years, cannot speak English well or cannot speak English at all which represents just under 3% of Hull’s population. The highest percentages who could not speak English well or at all occurred for people who used sign language or other communication systems (96 of the 143 residents: 67%), and residents whose main language was Chinese (353 of the 655 residents: 54%) or Turkish (224 of the 540 residents: 42%). However, the largest number of people who could not speak English well or at all was among people who spoke Polish with almost 2,700 residents who spoke Polish as their main language not being able to speak English well at all (this represented 31.5% all residents who spoke Polish as their main language).
• Almost a half of all residents of Hull stated they had no religion (49.2%) with the remaining Christian (39.9%), Muslim (3.5%), Buddhist (0.3%), Hindu (0.2%), Sikh (0.1%) and Jewish (0.1%) with 0.4% stating they had another religion and for the remaining 6.4% religion was not stated.
• There is a ‘healthy migrant affect’ in that people who tend to migrate have better health and opportunities than people who chose not to migrate. However, health is poorer among asylum seekers and refugees, and people from some ethnic minority backgrounds have a greater risk of some disease and medical conditions. People from white Gypsy or Irish Traveller, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities have the poorest health outcomes across a range of indicators. Rates of infant and maternal mortality, cardiovascular disease and diabetes are higher among people with black and South Asian ethnic backgrounds compared to people white ethnic backgrounds. Mortality from cancer, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is highest among people with white ethnic backgrounds. Men from black backgrounds are more likely to received a prostate cancer diagnosis. There is significant evidence that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are at higher risk of serious illness should they contract COVD-19. Furthermore, some ethnic minority groups are disproportionately represented in occupations that were known to increase the likelihood of contracting the virus.
• There is often a lack of information in relation to the health and wellbeing needs of people from ethnic minority backgrounds as ethnicity is not recorded accurately or fully on many health and other datasets. Additionally, different datasets can record ethnicity in different ways, or there have been changes in the way it has been recorded over time. As the King’s Fund state, unpicking the cause of inequalities among people with different ethnic backgrounds is difficult as there is often complex interplay of many factors including deprivation, environment, health-related behaviours and the ‘healthy migrant effect’. However, most ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by socio-economic deprivation, a key determinant of health status in all communities.
• Structural racism can reinforce inequalities, for example, in housing, employment and the criminal justice system, which in turn can have a negative impact on health. Racism and discrimination impacts negatively on physical and mental health.
• Furthermore, some people from ethnic minority backgrounds may experience language barriers and other barriers in relation to accessing services.

The Population Affected – Why Is It Important?

Race is generally defined as a combination of physical, behavioural and cultural attributes, whereas ethnicity recognises differences between people on the basis of language and shared culture. Race is often perceived as something that is inherent in our biology, and therefore inherited across generations. Ethnicity is more something we acquire, or self-ascribe, based on factors such as where we live or the culture that we share with others. As a result, people can ascribe themselves to more than one ethnic group based on their ascribed racial identity, culture, ancestry and religion. Furthermore, there is a great deal of variation within different ‘groups’ of individuals regardless of how the groups are defined. Everybody is unique. Generally, the complexity of race and ethnicity are not captured when recording personal characteristics of people whether that is in the Census or among people using different services such as attending health appointments or using local services.

Nevertheless, based on averages, people from different racial and ethnic groups, people can have different health needs as they may have an increased risk of specific diseases due to different genetic risk factors or have different prevalence of lifestyle and behavioural risk factors and may have some problems accessing services due to barriers such as language or due to cultural differences. There may also be increased lack of knowledge around what services are available and how they can be accessed. It is vital that these potential factors are considered so that everybody has good healthcare and access to services.

The Macpherson Report of 1999 highlighted that sometimes services are not meeting the needs of an ethnically diverse population because of both unwitting and institutional racism, which was defined as: “The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racial stereotyping.” This occurs because the majority population, usually white, set the rules and design the services without meaningful and fully listened to input from local diverse and usually minority communities. These representatives have the necessary understanding of their individual communities and the cultural, language and communication barriers, including how and where their communities gather information about services which may not always be the ‘mainstream’ channels. Meaningful involvement and representation from all ethnic minority communities is therefore essential for understanding and meeting the needs of all our communities. This involvement must not be ignored, it must be positively welcomed and incorporated into the design of inclusive services.

In order to assess the different needs of people from different ethnic minority backgrounds, it is essential to understand the health and wellbeing needs as well as understand any wider determinants of health (such as deprivation, housing, education, employment, etc) and differences in lifestyle and behaviour factors which may impact health in relation to the ethnic minorities. However, this is not always easy. Ethnicity is not generally collected in a standard and comprehensive manner across different service areas with different organisations often collecting the data and classifying ethnicity in different ways. As well as differences in the way ethnicity is recorded in different datasets, there are often changes over time in the way ethnicity has been collected. This makes it more difficult to examine the health and wellbeing needs of people from ethnic minority backgrounds. Furthermore, the numbers of people accessing different services can be small for specific ethnic minority groups, which makes the analysis of data difficult when dealing with small numbers as the data is not robust (see Small Numbers for more information).

The Hull Picture

Estimated Number of People From Different Ethnic Minority Backgrounds

Estimates from 2021 Census

From the 2021 Census, 91.8% of Hull residents were white, with 83.9% being white British. A further 2.8% were Asian or Asian British, 1.9% were black, black British, Caribbean or African, 1.7% residents were from mixed ethnic backgrounds, 0.5% were Arabs and 1.3% were from other ethnic groups.

Ethnicity in 2021 Census	Hull (%)	Hull (N)	England (%)
WHITE	91.8	244,989	81.0
White British	83.9	223,962	73.5
White Irish	0.2	455	0.9
White Gypsy or Irish Traveller	0.1	451	0.1
Roma	0.1	286	0.2
Any other white background	7.4	19,835	6.3
MIXED OR MULTIPLE ETHNIC GROUPS	1.7	4,513	3.0
White and black Caribbean	0.4	948	0.4
White and black African	0.4	1,144	0.9
White and Asian	0.4	1,172	0.8
Any other mixed ethnic groups	0.5	1,249	0.8
ASIAN OR BRITISH ASIAN	2.8	7,515	9.6
Indian	0.5	1,259	3.3
Pakistani	0.5	1,292	2.8
Bangladeshi	0.5	1,279	1.1
Chinese	0.5	1,234	0.8
Any other Asian background	0.9	2,451	1.7
BLACK, BLACK BRITISH, CARIBBEAN OR AFRICAN	1.9	5,065	4.2
Black Caribbean	0.1	232	2.6
Black African	1.6	4,292	1.1
Any other black background	0.2	541	0.5
ANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP	1.8	4,931	2.2
Arab	0.5	1,443	0.6
Any other ethnic group	1.3	3,488	1.6
TOTAL	100.0	267,013	100.0
Ethnic Minorities (excluding white minorities)	8.2	22,024	19.0
All Ethnic Minorities	16.1	43,051	26.5

County of Birth from 2021 Census

Detailed information is available from the 2021 Census relating to the country of birth. This cannot be combined with ethnicity due to small numbers, confidentiality and disclosure reasons, but may give a guide as to the ranges of countries where Hull residents were born. It is likely that a relatively high percentage of people from Asian or British Asian communities were born in the UK, but for other minority ethnic communities where the change in Hull’s population has been more recent, for instance, people from Eastern Europe coming to Hull, county of birth may reflect ethnicity. There will be some British citizens that were born abroad. The following table presents the county of birth for countries with the highest number of Hull residents.

Overall, 86.9% of Hull residents at the time of the 2021 Census were born in the UK with relatively high numbers of residents born in Eastern European countries, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent, and parts of Africa as well as a relatively high number born in Germany which could be related to armed forces personnel.

However, there has been relatively high levels of international migration into Hull since the Census, so it is possible that ethnicity and country of birth of Hull’s residents could have changed slightly since the Census in 2021.

Country of birth	Number of Hull residents	Percentage of Hull residents
England	229,086	85.8
Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland	2,963	1.1
United Kingdom	232,049	86.9
Poland	9,058	3.4
Romanian	3,602	1.3
Latvia	1,862	0.7
Lithuania	1,774	0.7
Iraq	1,430	0.5
Germany	974	0.4
Nigeria	882	0.3
India	850	0.3
Pakistan	607	0.2
Philippines	607	0.2
Bangladeshi	604	0.2
China	572	0.2
Turkey	532	0.2
Italy	516	0.2
Bulgaria	511	0.2
Portugal (including Madeira and the Azores)	446	0.2
Iran	438	0.2
Slovakia	412	0.2
Syria	411	0.2
Zimbabwe	357	0.1
Hungary	349	0.1
Ireland	327	0.1
Ghana	313	0.1
Sudan	284	0.1
Afghanistan	284	0.1
Spain (including Canary Islands)	281	0.1
Congo (Democratic Republic)	275	0.1
South Africa	260	0.1
Moldova	259	0.1
Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China)	215	0.1
United States	208	0.1
Other countries (<200 residents)	5,424	2.0
Total number of Hull residents	267,020	100.0

Changes Over Time Across Censuses

The percentage of Hull’s resident population from ethnic minority backgrounds has increased over time. Between 2011 and 2021, the largest increases occurred for Arab and other ethnic groups (120% increase), other white (82% increase), other black (80% increase), Africans (67% increase) and Bangladeshi (63% increase). The only ethnic minority group where the percentage of residents decreased was for Chinese (44% decrease).

However, over the last 20 years, the largest increases have occurred for other white, Arab and other ethnic groups, other black, Black African and other Asians.

Ethnicity in the last three Censuses (%)	2001	2011	2021
WHITE	97.7	94.1	91.8
White British	96.4	89.7	83.9
White Irish	0.3	0.2	0.2
White Gypsy or Irish Traveller/Roma	*	0.1	0.2
Any other white background	1.0	4.1	7.4
MIXED OR MULTIPLE ETHNIC GROUPS	0.7	1.3	1.7
White and black Caribbean	0.1	0.3	0.4
White and black African	0.1	0.3	0.4
White and Asian	0.2	0.4	0.4
Any other mixed ethnic groups	0.2	0.3	0.5
ASIAN OR BRITISH ASIAN	1.1	2.5	2.8
Indian	0.3	0.4	0.5
Pakistani	0.2	0.3	0.5
Bangladeshi	0.2	0.3	0.5
Chinese	0.3	0.8	0.5
Any other Asian background	0.2	0.6	0.9
BLACK, BLACK BRITISH, CARIBBEAN OR AFRICAN	0.4	1.2	1.9
Black Caribbean	0.1	0.1	0.1
Black African	0.3	1.0	1.6
Any other black background	0.0	0.1	0.2
ANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP	0.2	0.8	1.8
Arab	*	0.4	0.5
Any other ethnic group	0.2	0.4	1.3
TOTAL	100.0	100.0	100.0
Ethnic Minorities (excluding white minorities)	2.3	5.9	8.2
All Ethnic Minorities	3.6	10.3	16.1

Differences Across Hull’s Wards

There were also large differences in percentage of people from ethnic minority backgrounds across Hull’s 21 electoral wards. Wards in the centre of Hull and around Hull University were generally the most diverse, with the percentage of residents from ethnic minority backgrounds highest in Central (46.6%), St Andrew’s & Docklands (39.8%), Beverley & Newland (29.4%), Avenue (25.9%), University (25.5%) and Newington & Gipsyville (24.8%).

Ethnicity in 2021 census (%) by ward, area committee area and locality	White British	Other white	Ethnic minorities (excl white minorities)	All ethnic minorities
Avenue	74.1	11.2	14.7	25.9
Beverley & Newland	70.6	17.1	12.2	29.4
Bricknell	89.8	3.0	7.2	10.2
Central	53.4	21.8	24.8	46.6
Kingswood	90.6	3.4	5.9	9.4
North Carr	93.2	3.4	3.4	6.8
Orchard Park	80.7	11.5	7.8	19.3
University	74.5	8.2	17.3	25.5
West Carr	95.0	2.4	2.6	5.0
NORTH AREA COMMITTEE	80.1	9.5	10.4	19.9
Drypool	82.9	7.9	9.2	17.1
Holderness	94.7	2.7	2.5	5.3
Ings	95.7	1.7	2.6	4.3
Longhill & Bilton Grange	93.6	3.9	2.6	6.4
Marfleet	90.3	6.0	3.7	9.7
Southcoates	88.5	6.6	4.9	11.5
Sutton	95.9	2.2	2.0	4.1
EAST AREA COMMITTEE	91.5	4.6	4.0	8.5
Boothferry	93.0	3.0	4.0	7.0
Derringham	94.6	2.1	3.3	5.4
Newington & Gipsyville	75.2	14.2	10.6	24.8
Pickering	91.5	3.7	4.7	8.5
St Andrew’s & Docklands	60.2	17.8	21.9	39.8
WEST AREA COMMITTEE	80.2	9.6	10.2	19.8
HULL	83.9	7.9	8.2	16.1

The map below shows the percentage of Hull’s resident population who were from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The following map shows the percentage of Hull’s population who were from ethnic minority backgrounds (excluding white minorities), and shows the percentage are generally less than 5% for the west and north of the city.

Differences by Age

As well as differing by geographical areas, the percentages from ethnic minority backgrounds did differ considerably by age with a higher percentage of the resident population from ethnic minority backgrounds among younger people.

Ethnicity by age (%)	0-4	5-15	16-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
WHITE	86.3	87.8	88.6	90.7	89.2	93.3	96.3	98.1
White British	78.9	79.6	80.1	79.4	75.4	858.1	92.5	96.6
White Irish	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3
White Gypsy or Irish Traveller/Roma	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.5	0.3	0.1	0.1
Any other white background	7.1	8.0	7.9	10.9	13.2	7.6	3.4	1.3
MIXED OR MULTIPLE ETHNIC GROUPS	3.5	3.4	2.6	1.3	1.4	1.1	0.9	0.4
White and black Caribbean	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.2
White and black African	1.1	1.1	0.7	0.2	0.3	0.2	0.1	0.1
White and Asian	0.9	0.9	0.7	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.1	0.1
Any other mixed background	0.9	0.8	0.7	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.1
ASIAN OR BRITISH ASIAN	4.2	3.2	3.6	3.7	4.2	2.5	1.4	0.7
Indian	0.8	0.4	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.4	0.4	0.1
Pakistani	0.9	0.6	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.3	0.2	0.1
Bangladeshi	1.1	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.8	0.3	0.1	0.1
Chinese	0.4	0.5	0.7	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.3	0.3
Any other Asian background	1.0	1.0	1.1	1.4	1.6	0.9	0.3	0.1
BLACK, BLACK BRITISH, CARIBBEAN OR AFRICAN	2.9	2.9	3.0	1.9	2.4	1.7	0.8	0.3
Black Caribbean	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.0
Black African	2.4	2.3	2.7	1.8	2.2	1.4	0.6	0.2
Any other black background	0.5	0.6	0.3	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.0
ANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP	3.1	2.6	2.2	2.3	2.8	1.5	0.7	0.2
Arab	0.7	0.9	0.9	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.2	0.1
Any other ethnic group	2.5	1.7	1.3	1.8	2.2	1.1	0.5	0.1
TOTAL	100	100	100	100	100	100	100	100
Ethnic Minorities (excluding white minorities)	13.7	12.2	11.4	9.3	10.8	6.7	3.7	1.7
All Ethnic Minorities	21.1	20.4	19.9	20.6	24.6	14.9	7.5	3.4

The numbers by ethnic minority background for the same ages are given below.

Ethnicity by age (numbers)	0-4	5-15	16-24	25-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
WHITE	13,766	32,662	28,166	37,231	30,784	31,294	30,937	40,148
White British	12,585	29,588	25,478	32,578	26,008	28,5873	29,716	39,436
White Irish	5	9	53	63	53	53	81	140
White Gypsy or Irish Traveller/Roma	45	93	114	129	167	114	45	26
Any other white background	1,131	2,972	2,521	4,461	4,556	2,554	1,095	546
MIXED OR MULTIPLE ETHNIC GROUPS	557	1,273	834	541	471	369	284	179
White and black Caribbean	92	216	179	135	90	91	72	72
White and black African	179	416	209	102	98	63	48	29
White and Asian	138	332	234	143	145	106	48	24
Any other mixed background	148	309	212	161	138	109	116	54
ASIAN OR BRITISH ASIAN	666	1,185	1,158	1,515	1,452	823	438	282
Indian	126	143	193	287	206	130	113	61
Pakistani	143	235	224	250	243	97	63	38
Bangladeshi	180	265	179	214	260	109	48	26
Chinese	57	172	213	203	203	172	109	107
Any other Asian background	160	370	349	561	540	315	105	50
BLACK, BLACK BRITISH, CARIBBEAN OR AFRICAN	467	1,093	965	789	830	558	252	114
Black Caribbean	5	29	36	38	41	34	38	12
Black African	381	850	847	723	745	484	180	83
Any other black background	81	214	82	28	44	40	34	19
ANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP	497	969	685	962	972	514	231	99
Arab	104	323	275	242	221	156	77	45
Any other ethnic group	393	646	410	720	751	358	154	54
TOTAL	15,953	37,182	31,808	41,038	34,509	33,558	32,142	40,822
Ethnic Minorities (excluding white minorities)	2,187	4,520	3,642	3,807	3,725	2,264	1,205	674
All Ethnic Minorities	3,368	7,594	6,330	8,460	8,501	4,985	2,426	1,386

Ethnicity Within Hull’s Schools

The percentage of pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds attending Hull schools has doubled in the last decade from 9.1% in 2010 (14.9% in 2014 and 17.3% in 2016) to 21.5% in 2020.

In the January 2021 school census, 21.9% were from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The numbers will differ slightly from the 2021 Census as the data collection period is slightly different (January for the school census and March for the 2021 Census) and ethnicity classifications may differ slightly as the person completing the 2021 Census form and the person completing the school registration form may be different or they may have provided slightly different information on the two occasions.

Ethnicity among school pupils	Hull (%)	Hull (N)	England (%)
WHITE	87.9	37,130	72.4
White British	78.1	32,998	64.9
Irish	0.1	28	0.3
Traveller of Irish heritage	0.0	11	0.1
Gypsy/Roma	0.3	133	0.3
Any other white background	9.4	3,960	6.8
MIXED OR MULTIPLE ETHNIC GROUPS	4.0	1,703	6.4
White and black Caribbean	0.2	92	1.6
White and black African	0.7	276	0.9
White and Asian	0.5	223	1.5
Any other mixed background	2.6	1,112	2.4
ASIAN OR BRITISH ASIAN	1.8	727	12.0
Indian	0.3	129	3.3
Pakistani	0.5	195	4.5
Bangladeshi	0.5	210	1.8
Chinese	0.1	40	0.5
Any other Asian background	0.5	224	0.8
BLACK, BLACK BRITISH, CARIBBEAN OR AFRICAN	2.0	856	5.7
Black Caribbean	0.0	17	1.0
Black African	1.5	615	3.9
Any other black background	0.5	224	0.8
ANY OTHER ETHNIC GROUP
Any other ethnic group	3.0	1,248	1.8
Unclassified	1.4	580	1.6
All Ethnic Minorities	21.9	9,246	35.1

Among state-funded mainstream schools in Hull for 2023/24, 19.7% of primary school, 16.0% of secondary school and 9.0% of special school pupils first language was not English. Whilst these percentages are lower than England (22.8%, 18.6% and 14.4% respectively), there difference between Hull and England appear to be reducing over time. The figures were 16.9%, 13.6% and 6.0% for 2020/21 respectively so numbers have increased in Hull in recent years. For the 2023/24 school year, this equates to 4,934 primary, 2,717 secondary and 73 special school pupils whose first language is not English. This equates to a total of 7,724 pupils, and it is estimated that speak a range of around 122 different languages other than English.

However, there were very large differences in the percentage of pupils whose first language was not English across Hull’s schools. Among special schools, the percentages ranged from 1.6% to 17.7% in Ganton School. Among primary schools, the percentages ranged from 2.5% to 70.0%, and among secondary schools, the percentages ranged from 2.5% to 46.7% in Newland School for Girls.

The following schools have fewer than 5% of its pupils whose first language was not English:

• Spring Cottage Primary School (2.5%)
• St Andrew’s Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School (2.5%)
• Neasden Primary School (2.6%)
• Wansbeck Primary School (2.8%)
• Gillshill Primary School (3.2%)
• Bellfield Primary School (3.4%)
• Giffin Primary School (3.4%)
• Dorchester Primary School (3.7%)
• Ings Primary School (3.9%)
• Bude Park Primary School (4.7%)
• Highlands Primary School (4.7%)
• Bridgeview Special School (1.6%)
• Oakfield Special School (1.9%)
• Winifred Holtby Secondary Academy (2.5%)

The following schools have the majority of its pupils whose first language was not English:

• Sidmouth Primary School (50.3%)
• Wheeler Primary School (52.3%)
• St Vincent’s Voluntary Catholic Academy (54.5%)
• Clifton Primary School (57.3%)
• St Charles Voluntary Catholic Academy (59.2%)
• Collingwood Primary School (59.4%)
• Pearson Primary School (66.4%)
• Adelaide Primary School (69.5%)
• Stepney Primary School (70.0%)

Recent International Migration

Whilst the latest Census in 2021 provided estimates on the percentage of ethnic minorities across different populations, the resident population estimates from the Office for National Statistics present changes in migration including international migration. Between mid-2021 and mid-2023, ONS estimate that Hull’s population increased by 10,871 people due to international migration. Not all the people coming into Hull will be from minority ethnic groups as some people could be white British returning to the UK, but it is likely that a sizable proportion are from minority ethnic groups. On this basis, it does suggest that Hull’s minority ethnic minority population may have increased since the 2021 Census. Furthermore, there are differences in the age profile for the international migration net figures. Between mid-2022 and mid-2023, when Hull’s population increased by 5,768 people due to international migration, 1,894 (32.8%) were aged 0-17 years, 606 (10.5%) were aged 18-24 years, 2,737 (47.5%) were aged 25-39 years, 524 (9.1%) were aged 40-64 years and 7 (0.1%) were aged 65+ years.

Population / component	2021	2022	2023
Population in previous period	267,591	266,516	268,677
Births	3,009	3,202	3,067
Deaths	2,699	2,704	2,749
Natural change	310	498	318
Internal migration in	11,876	11,530	11,686
Internal migration out	14,533	14,273	14,580
Internal migration net	-2,657	-2.743	-2.894
International migration in	2,481	6,275	7,524
International migration out	1,877	1,776	1,756
International migration net	604	4,499	5,768
Other changes (e.g. armed services, prisons)	668	-93	73
Population in specified period	266,516	268,677	271,942
Total change	-1,075	2,161	3,265

Main Language Spoken

The 2021 Census also collected information on the main language spoken which is a person’s first or preferred language. The information was collected on all residents who were aged 3+ years. There were a total of 84 different languages for Hull in the Census where at least one resident aged 3+ years spoke that language, although this may be an underestimate as some languages were grouped together into broader groups such as ‘any other Chinese language’, ‘other European language’ or ‘any other West African language’. Nine in ten residents of Hull spoke English as their first or preferred language.

Main language	Number	Percentage
English	231,761	90.0
Polish	8,564	3.3
Romanian	3,245	1.3
Lithuanian	1,517	0.6
Arabic	1,287	0.5
Kurdish	1,248	0.5
Russian	1,061	0.4
Latvian	930	0.4
Turkish	547	0.2
Portuguese	536	0.2
Bengali (with Sylheti and Chatgaya)	457	0.2
All other Chinese (not Mandarin or Cantonese)	450	0.2
Persian or Farsi	405	0.2
Bulgarian	404	0.2
Hungarian	382	0.1
Slovak	362	0.1
Tagalog or Filipino	329	0.1
Urdu	317	0.1
Spanish	313	0.1
Italian	294	0.1
Igbo	178	0.1
Any other African language	178	0.1
Panjabi	173	0.1
Swahili or Kiswahili	144	0.1
Greek	142	0.1
Pashto	137	0.1
Czech	132	0.1
Tamil	127	0.0
Cantonese Chinese	125	0.0
Malayalam	124	0.0
Mandarin Chinese	122	0.0
Somali	113	0.0
British Sign Language	112	0.0
French	102	0.0
Vietnamese	102	0.0
Thai	100	0.0
Albanian	86	0.0
Any other West African language	76	0.0
German	74	0.0
Hindi	67	0.0
Tigrinya	57	0.0
Dutch	54	0.0
Other European language	51	0.0
Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrin	51	0.0
Other languages (<50 individuals)	581	0.2
Total residents aged 3+ years	257,566	100.0

In 2021, there were around 7,500 residents of Hull who could not speak English well or at all.

Proficiency in English language	Number	Percent
Main language is English	231,761	90.0
Can speak English very well	8,630	3.4
Can speak English well	9,652	3.7
Cannot speak English well	6,292	2.4
Cannot speak English	1,241	0.5
Total residents aged 3+ years	257,576	100.0

Overall, there were 25,582 residents of Hull aged 3+ years whose main language was not English. Among those with main language stated and proficiency of England stated, 18,096 (70.7%) could speak English well or very well, 6,261 (24.5%) could not speak English well and 1,225 (4.8%) could not speak English at all.

Whilst the highest percentages who could not speak English well or at all occurred for people using sign language, the total number of residents affected were relatively small in relation to the total numbers who could not speak English well or at all for other languages. More than half of people who spoke Chinese languages could not speak English well or at all, and around four in ten of those who spoke Turkish. Around three in ten who spoke Polish, other European languages, West or Central Asian languages, Bengali (with Sylheti and Chatgaya) could not speak English well or at all. Information relating to proficiency in the English language from the Census was not available for the full list of languages above with only 24 categories included.

The table below presents the information in order of the highest total number of residents aged 3+ years who cannot speak English well or cannot speak English at all. The highest numbers occurs for residents who spoke Polish or other European languages excluding Portuguese, Spanish and French which are listed separately (with around 2,700 residents among those who spoke Polish and around 2,200 residents among those who spoke other European languages). The remaining individuals can either speak English well or very well.

Language	Total residents (3+)	Cannot speak English well (N)	Cannot speak English well (%)	Cannot speak English at all (N)	Cannot speak English at all (%)	Cannot speak English well or at all (N)	Cannot speak English well or at all (%)
Polish	8,533	2,310	27.1	382	4.5	2,692	31.5
Other European languages	7,556	1,780	23.6	426	5.6	2,206	29.2
West or Central Asian languages	1,798	481	26.8	66	3.7	547	30.4
Mandarin, Cantonese or other Chinese languages	655	314	47.9	39	6.0	353	53.9
Arabic	1,270	246	23.2	33	3.1	315	26.3
Russian	1,059	246	23.2	33	3.1	279	26.3
Turkish	540	164	30.4	60	11.1	224	41.5
African languages	884	150	17.0	29	3.3	179	20.2
Bengali (with Sylheti and Chatgaya)	457	134	29.3	15	3.3	149	32.6
Portuguese	522	96	18.4	15	2.9	111	21.3
Any other East Asian languages	599	82	13.7	6	1.0	88	14.7
British Sign Language	112	40	35.7	29	25.9	69	61.6
Spanish	304	50	16.4	9	3.0	59	19.4
Urdu	314	46	14.6	3	1.0	49	15.6
Panjabi	173	29	16.8	11	6.4	40	23.1
Other European language (non-European Union)	158	29	18.4	10	6.3	39	24.7
Any other South Asian language	303	21	6.9	3	1.0	24	7.9
Any sign communication system	21	11	52.4	8	38.1	19	90.5
Any other languages	37	12	32.4	1	2.7	13	35.1
Tamil	127	9	7.1	1	0.8	10	7.9
Any other sign language	10	1	10.0	7	70.0	8	80.0
Any other UK languages	28	2	7.1	3	10.7	5	17.9
French	93	4	4.3	0	0.0	4	4.3
Gujarati	29	4	13.8	0	0.0	4	13.8
Total	25,582	6,261	24.5	1,225	4.8	7,486	29.3

Religion

The 2021 Census also collected information on religion for all residents.

Religion	Number	Percentage
No religion	131,424	49.2
Christian	106,411	39.9
Muslim	9,285	3.5
Buddhist	746	0.3
Hindu	646	0.2
Sikh	277	0.1
Jewish	146	0.1
Other religion	1,124	0.4
Religion not stated	16,957	6.4
Total residents	267,016	100.0

A total of 131,424 were classified as ‘No religion’ and this mainly comprised residents who had specifically selected ‘No religion’ (131,212) but also included 134 with Agnostic, 49 with Atheist and 26 as Humanist.

A total of 1,124 were classified as having other religions and these included Pagan (397), Alevi (81), Spiritualist (76), Wicca (72), Spiritual (62), and Heathen (38).

Impact of COVID-19

There is significant evidence that people from ethnic minority backgrounds are at higher risk of serious illness should they contract COVID-19. 

Those with limited or no English language skills are less able to access information in an understandable format and this has been highlighted as an issue within the South East Asian community, particularly for older females. The vast majority of the general population are estimated to speak and understand English according to the Office for National Statistics (98.4%) and younger age groups across all ethnicities are far less likely to experience language barriers. This however will not be the case for newly arrived communities, for instance, asylum seekers and refugees.

Some ethnic minority groups are more likely to live in higher density housing environments than others.  Some ethnic groups are disproportionately represented in occupations that are known to increase the likelihood of contracting the virus (care, health, public transport, food production etc).

Strategic Need and Service Provision

There have been relatively large increases in Hull’s ethnic minority population between 2001 and 2021, and it would appear that these are continuing with the relatively high levels international migration into Hull since the 2021 Census. Therefore, it is important that service providers in Hull are taking these changes into consideration when designing their services to ensure there are no barriers to access to healthcare and other services. There should also be work to identify the most vulnerable citizens and work with them to address their specific needs so that all services, policies and strategies are the best they can be for all people regardless of who they are.

There is often a lack of data and information relating to the health and wellbeing for specific ethnic minority groups, and collecting good quality consistent information relating to ethnicity is essential so that the circumstances and needs of people from specific ethnic minority groups can be examined in more detail. Despite the lack of data, there are many ways local services are involving ethnic minority groups in the design of services, policies and strategies so that they meet the needs of specific ethnic minority groups.

Resources

Census 2021. https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census

Census 2011. https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011census

Census 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/datasets/create

Census 2021: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021

School League Tables: https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/

Office for National Statistics. Estimates of the population for England and Wales. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/estimatesofthepopulationforenglandandwales

Updates

This page was last updated / checked on 24 January 2025.

This page is due to be updated / checked in November 2025.