Integration and culture
The official evidence on integration: language, extremism referrals, what formal inquiries actually found, and where public opinion stands.
How this page works. It reports official statistics and inquiry findings, quoted exactly. It distinguishes ideologies from individuals, and specific criminal networks from the communities they came from. Nothing here supports generalisation about any nationality, faith or community beyond what the cited source itself states.
English language (Census 2021, England & Wales)
Of 57,704,263 usual residents aged 3 and over, 8.9% had a main language other than English, and 1.8% could not speak English well or at all — just over a million people. Language is the single most measurable integration gap: it constrains work, services and civic participation.
Work: labour market status by country of birth
| Country of birth | Employment rate (16-64) | Unemployment rate (16+) | Economically inactive (16-64) |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK-born | 74.4% | 4.5% | 22% |
| Non-UK-born (all) | 77.2% | 6.4% | 17.5% |
| EU-born | 80.1% | 6.2% | 14.4% |
| Non-EU-born | 75.9% | 6.5% | 18.8% |
| All aged 16-64 | 74.9% | 5% | 21% |
The aggregate picture cuts both ways and is reported as published: non-UK-born residents have a higher overall employment rate than the UK-born, alongside a higher unemployment rate — aggregates that also vary widely by origin.
Employment and inactivity rates cover ages 16-64; unemployment covers 16+. Labour Force Survey estimates — small samples are volatile. Country of birth, not nationality: many non-UK-born residents are British citizens.
Extremism: Prevent referrals by type of concern
Group-based child sexual exploitation: what the inquiries found
Two formal investigations — IICSA (2022) and Baroness Casey's national audit (2025) — examined group-based child sexual exploitation, including the role of ethnicity. Their findings are reproduced verbatim below, with page references. These findings concern specific criminal networks and the institutions (councils, police, government) that failed to confront them — they are not statistics about any ethnic or religious group as a whole.
“The ethnicity data collected for victims and perpetrators of group-based child sexual exploitation is not sufficient to allow any conclusions to be drawn at the national level.”
“We found that the ethnicity of perpetrators is shied away from and is still not recorded for two-thirds of perpetrators, so we are unable to provide any accurate assessment from the nationally collected data.”
“When we looked at data held in three local areas, there is evidence that men of Asian ethnicity are over-represented as perpetrators in group-based child sexual exploitation in those areas.”
“As set out in Part H, this investigation demonstrated a widespread failure in the case study areas to record the ethnicity of perpetrators and victims of child sexual exploitation.”
“The failure to collect data on the ethnicity of the perpetrators and victims of child sexual exploitation, and the failure to make a public statement of the reasons why it is important to collect such data, have also led to a one-sided and often uninformed public debate where links have been made between ethnicity and a number of high-profile cases involving South Asian men.”
The through-line of both inquiries is the same: where local data existed it showed over-representation of particular groups of men in this specific crime pattern, and the national data needed to establish the full picture was not collected — a failure both inquiries condemned. Demanding that data be collected is a data-transparency position, not a statement about any community.
Public opinion
Polling is reported here only with the pollster, fieldwork dates, sample size and exact question wording — because question wording drives results.
“Which of the following comes closest to your view?”
- Immigration levels in recent years: much too high48%
- A bit too high24%
- About right17%
- A bit / much too low3%
- Don't know8%
Percentages from the published weighted tables, rounded. The item asked about immigration levels in recent years; answer scale ran from 'Much too high' to 'Much too low'.
“Which of the following comes closest to your view?”
- I like living in a community with more people who come from different cultural backgrounds.53%
- I like living in a community where most people come from the same cultural background.47%
Forced-choice item; percentages from the published weighted tables, rounded.
Data as of
Sources for this page
- Census 2021 table TS029: Proficiency in English, England and Wales (ONS, via Nomis) — ONS · Census day, 21 March 2021 · retrieved 2026-08-09
- Individuals referred to Prevent: to September 2025 (Home Office) — Home Office · April 2024 to March 2025 · retrieved 2026-08-09
- National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse · 16 June 2025 · retrieved 2026-08-09
- National Audit on Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse · 16 June 2025 · retrieved 2026-08-09
- More in Common, Social Cohesion polling for BBC Radio 4 — data tables (sheet 'immigrationlevels_recentyears') — More in Common · 26–28 June 2026 · retrieved 2026-08-09