Southeast Asians in the United Kingdom facts for kids
| Total population | |
|---|---|
 England and  Wales only:267,288 – 0.45% (2021)
|
|
| Regions with significant populations | |
| London, Belfast, Liverpool, Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, Edinburgh | |
| Languages | |
| Tagalog/Filipino – 60,899 Thai – 22,966 Vietnamese – 18,518 Malay – 8,014 Number of speakers in England and Wales as a main language, of all usual residents aged 3 and over, from the 2021 census. |
|
| Religion | |
| Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Non-religious, others | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Asians |
People from Southeast Asia have lived in the United Kingdom for many years. They come from countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Contents
How the Population Grew
The UK government does not have a special category for "Southeast Asian" in its official records. However, many people, including the government's own Foreign and Commonwealth Office, see Southeast Asians as a distinct group. Experts have also studied them as a separate community.
Until the late 1900s, there were only a few people from the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia in the UK. Their numbers started to grow in the 1970s. This happened after new laws, like the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1962 and its update in 1968, changed who could easily move to the UK from Commonwealth countries. These changes led to more people coming from non-Commonwealth countries, such as the Philippines.
The 2001 UK census counted 9,924 people born in Burma living in the United Kingdom.
Where People Were Born
The numbers below show where people living in the UK were born. This data comes from the 2021 United Kingdom census. It does not include people of Southeast Asian background who were born in the UK. The census in Scotland happened a year later, in 2022.
| Country | England (2021) |
 Scotland(2022) |
Wales (2021) |
Northern Ireland (2021) |
 United Kingdom(2021/22) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Philippines |
149,474 | 6,245 | 5,542 | 3,701 | 164,962 |
 Malaysia |
59,674 | 5,295 | 1,836 | 871 | 67,676 |
 Singapore |
39,637 | 3,725 | 1,287 | 360 | 45,009 |
 Thailand |
47,597 | 6,948 | 2,112 | 725 | – |
 Vietnam |
36,442 | 772 | 237 | ||
 Indonesia |
11,858 | 320 | 239 | ||
 Myanmar |
10,410 | 214 | 48 | ||
 Brunei |
4,350 | 163 | 24 | ||
 Cambodia |
1,500 | 33 | 27 | ||
| Other Southeast Asia | 15,582 | 108 | – | ||
| Total | 376,524 | 22,214 | 12,348 | 6,232 | 417,318 |
Ethnic Groups in the UK
The table below shows the number of people who identified with specific Southeast Asian ethnic groups in the 2021/2022 UK census.
| Ethnic group | England (2021) |
Scotland (2022) |
Wales (2021) |
Northern Ireland (2021) |
United Kingdom (2021/22) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filipinos | 155,996 | To be published, only 2011 figures available |
6,142 | 4,449 | 166,587 |
| Thai | 38,279 | 1,683 | 373 | 40,335 | |
| Vietnamese | 36,643 | 815 | 117 | 37,575 | |
| Malay | 12,407 | 466 | 143 | 13,016 | |
| Burmese/Myanma | 7,338 | 177 | 18 | 7,533 | |
| Indonesian | 7,145 | 199 | 124 | 7,468 | |
| Total | 257,808 | TBC | 9,482 | 5,224 | 272,514 |
Southeast Asians in Media
In 2008, a news company called ABS-CBN reported something interesting. They said it was hard for British people of Southeast Asian background to find acting jobs in the British film industry.
Groups of Southeast Asians
Here are some of the main groups of Southeast Asians living in the UK:
- Burmese
- Filipinos
- Indonesians
- Malaysians
- Singaporeans
- Thais
- Vietnamese
