# Demographics of Luton

Luton, Bedfordshire, England is an ethnically and culturally diverse town of 203,201 people. It's primarily urban, with a population density of 4,696/km$^2$ (12,160/sq mi). Luton has seen several waves of immigration. In the early part of the 20th century, there was internal migration of Irish and Scottish people to the town. These were followed by Afro-Caribbean and Asian immigrants. More recently immigrants from other European Union countries have made Luton their home. As a result of this Luton has a diverse ethnic mix, with a significant population of Asian descent, mainly Pakistani 29,353 (14.4%) and Bangladeshi 13,606 (6.7%).
Since the 2011 census, Luton has had a white British population less than 50%, one of three towns in the United Kingdom along with Leicester and Slough. Luton has a majority white population, when non-British white people such as the Irish and Eastern Europeans are included. Identity wise, 81% of the population of Luton define themselves as British of any race.

## Ethnicity

The following table shows the ethnic group of respondents for estimations for 1971 and in the 1991 to 2021 censuses in Luton.
There was likely 600 to 700 'coloured' people within Luton in 1958, around 300 of these being Afro-Caribbeans, 250 Pakistanis and 60 Indians.
Luton is a majority minority town in which no single ethnic group make up the majority of residents, however by broad multi-ethnic groups, Whites make up 54.7% of the population, a decline of 25.5% from 1991 when Whites made up 4 out of every 5 residents (80.2%). Asian British people have grown in proportional size, having gone from 14% in 1991 to nearly one third of the town's population (30%) in 2011. Black British residents have also increased from nearly 5% to nearly 10% in two decades as well as Mixed residents who have gone from 2.6% in 2001 to 4.1% in 2011.
| Ethnic Group | 1971 estimations | 1971 estimations | 1981 estimations | 1981 estimations | 1991 census | 1991 census | 2001 census | 2001 census | 2011 census | 2011 census | 2021 census | 2021 census |
| Ethnic Group | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % |
| White: Total | 148,061 | 93.3% | 135,058 | 84.4% | 139,554 | 79.9% | 132,566 | 71.90% | 111,079 | 54.66% | 101,798 | 45.2% |
| White: British | – | – | – | – | – | – | 119,793 | 64.97% | 90,530 | 44.55% | 71,532 | 31.8% |
| White: Irish | – | – | – | – | 9,266 | 5.4% | 8,569 | 4.65% | 6,126 | 3.01% | 4,570 | 2.0% |
| White: Gypsy or Irish Traveller | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 198 | 0.10% | 238 | 0.1% |
| White: Roma | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 808 | 0.4% |
| White: Other | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4,204 | 2.28% | 14,225 | 7.00% | 24,650 | 10.9% |
| Asian or Asian British: Total | – | – | 16,748 | 10.5% | 24,849 | 14.2% | 34,773 | 18.86% | 60,952 | 30% | 83,325 | 37.1% |
| Asian or Asian British: Indian | – | – | 5723 | | 7422 | | 7,538 | 4.09% | 10,625 | 5.23% | 12,096 | 5.4% |
| Asian or Asian British: Pakistani | – | – | 7,238 | | 10,987 | | 17,012 | 9.23% | 29,353 | 14.45% | 41,143 | 18.3% |
| Asian or Asian British: Bangladeshi | – | – | 2,576 | | 4,819 | | 7,641 | 4.14% | 13,606 | 6.70% | 20,630 | 9.2% |
| Asian or Asian British: Chinese | – | – | 582 | | 676 | | 1,096 | 0.59% | 1,497 | 0.74% | 901 | 0.4% |
| Asian or Asian British: Other Asian | – | – | 629 | | 945 | | 1,486 | 0.81% | 5,871 | 2.89% | 8,555 | 3.8% |
| Black or Black British: Total | – | – | 6,963 | 4.3% | 8,566 | 4.9% | 11,684 | 6.34% | 19,909 | 9.80% | 22,735 | 10% |
| Black or Black British: African | – | – | 497 | | 634 | | 3,204 | 1.74% | 9,169 | 4.51% | 11,774 | 5.2% |
| Black or Black British: Caribbean | – | – | 5308 | | 6420 | | 7,653 | 4.15% | 8,177 | 4.02% | 8,216 | 3.6% |
| Black or Black British: Other Black | – | – | 1158 | | 1512 | | 827 | 0.45% | 2,563 | 1.26% | 2,745 | 1.2% |
| Mixed: Total | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4,728 | 2.56% | 8,281 | 4.08% | 9,620 | 4.3% |
| Mixed: White and Black Caribbean | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2,414 | 1.31% | 3,831 | 1.89% | 3,486 | 1.5% |
| Mixed: White and Black African | – | – | – | – | – | – | 389 | 0.21% | 915 | 0.45% | 1,268 | 0.6% |
| Mixed: White and Asian | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1,058 | 0.57% | 1,805 | 0.89% | 2,429 | 1.1% |
| Mixed: Other Mixed | – | – | – | – | – | – | 867 | 0.47% | 1,730 | 0.85% | 2,437 | 1.1% |
| Other: Total | – | – | 1,232 | 0.8% | 1,631 | 1% | 620 | 0.34% | 2,980 | 1.47% | 7,783 | 3.4% |
| Other: Arab | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1,646 | 0.81% | 2,106 | 0.9% |
| Other: Any other ethnic group | – | – | – | – | – | – | 620 | 0.34% | 1,334 | 0.66% | 5,677 | 2.5% |
| Ethnic minority: Total | 10,694 | 6.7% | 24,943 | 15.6% | 35,046 | 20.1% | 51,805 | 28.1% | 92,122 | 45.3% | 123,463 | 54.8% |
| Total | 158,755 | 100% | 160,001 | 100% | 174,600 | 100% | 184,371 | 100% | 203,201 | 100% | 225,261 | 100% |
Notes
* ↑ New category created for the 2011 census
* ↑ In 2001, listed under the 'Chinese or other ethnic group' heading.
* ↑ New category created for the 2011 census

### Distribution

* White
* White-British
* White-Irish
* White-Other
* Asian
* Asian-Indian
* Asian-Pakistani
* Asian-Bangladeshi
* Asian-Chinese
* Black
* Black-African
* Black-Caribbean
* Other-Arab

### Ethnicity of school pupils

Luton's schools are majority-minority, that being no single ethnic group makes up the majority, the single largest group is British Pakistanis at 25.1% of the school pupil population and the largest multi-ethnic group being Asian British people at 47.4% in 2022, which was previous White's at 53.5% in 2004. The native White British population has declined from a near majority in 2004 at 49.5% to 17.2% in 2022. Black British people and Mixed people have also increased however Other ethnicities has declined from a peak of 3.7% in 2016 to 2.2% in 2022.
| Ethnic group | School year | School year | School year | School year | School year | School year | School year | School year |
| Ethnic group | 1971 | 1971 | 2004 | 2004 | 2015/16 | 2015/16 | 2021/2022 | 2021/2022 |
| Ethnic group | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % |
| White: Total | – | 92.7% | 14,900 | 53.5% | 7,285 | 29.4% | 12,230 | 30.2% |
| White: British | – | – | 13,780 | 49.5% | 4,229 | 17.1% | 6,972 | 17.2% |
| White: Irish | – | – | 550 | | 112 | | 154 | |
| White: Traveller of Irish heritage | – | – | 40 | | 34 | | 44 | |
| White: Gypsy/Roma | – | – | 20 | | 151 | | 169 | |
| White: Other | – | – | 510 | | 2,759 | | 4,891 | |
| Asian / Asian British: Total | – | – | 8,140 | 29.3% | 12,089 | 48.8% | 19,185 | 47.4% |
| Asian / Asian British: Indian | – | – | 950 | 3.4% | 888 | 3.6% | 1,571 | 3.9% |
| Asian / Asian British: Pakistani | – | – | 4,090 | 14.7% | 6,177 | 24.9% | 10,163 | 25.1% |
| Asian / Asian British: Bangladeshi | – | – | 2,080 | | 149 | | 4,998 | |
| Asian / Asian British: Chinese | – | – | 90 | | 46 | | 87 | |
| Asian / Asian British: Other Asians | – | – | 930 | | 1,235 | | 2,366 | |
| Black / Black British: Total | – | – | 2,510 | 9% | 2,140 | 8.6% | 3,995 | 9.9% |
| Black: Caribbean | – | – | 1,320 | | 327 | | 1,013 | |
| Black: African | – | – | 950 | | 1,653 | | 2,613 | |
| Black: Other Blacks | – | – | 250 | | 160 | | 369 | |
| Mixed / British Mixed | – | – | 1,750 | 6.3% | 2,105 | 8.5% | 3,676 | 9.1% |
| Other: Total | – | – | 170 | 0.6% | 909 | 3.7% | 890 | 2.2% |
| Unclassified | – | – | 390 | | 266 | | 475 | |
| Non-White: Total | – | 7.3% | | | | | | |
| Total: | – | 100% | 27,840 | 100% | 24,794 | 100% | 40,451 | 100% |

## Languages

The most common main languages spoken in Luton according to the 2011 census are shown in the following table.
| Rank | Language | Usual residents aged 3+ | Proportion |
| 1 | English | 153,463 | 79.43% |
| 2 | Urdu | 8,567 | 4.43% |
| 3 | Polish | 8,006 | 4.14% |
| 4 | Bengali | 6,337 | 3.28% |
| 5 | Punjabi | 2,203 | 1.14% |
| 6 | Gujarati | 1,714 | 0.89% |
| 7 | Arabic | 1,037 | 0.54% |
| 8 | Lithuanian | 698 | 0.36% |
| 9 | Tamil | 653 | 0.34% |
| 10 | Tagalog/Filipino | 524 | 0.27% |
| 11 | Shona | 489 | 0.25% |
| 12 | Hindi | 484 | 0.25% |
| 13 | French | 439 | 0.23% |
| 14 | Portuguese | 397 | 0.21% |
| 15 | Slovak | 352 | 0.18% |
| 16 | Italian | 342 | 0.18% |
| 17 | Romanian | 340 | 0.18% |
| 18 | Russian | 324 | 0.17% |
| 19 | Malayalam | 316 | 0.16% |
| 20 | Pashto | 293 | 0.15% |
| | Other | 6,217 | 3.22% |

## Religion

The following table shows the religion of respondents in the 2001, 2011 and 2021 censuses in Luton.
| Religion | 2001 | 2001 | 2011 | 2011 | 2021 | 2021 |
| Religion | Number | % | Number | % | Number | % |
| Christian | 109,973 | 59.65% | 96,271 | 47.38% | 85,297 | 37.87% |
| Buddhist | 456 | 0.25% | 652 | 0.32% | 664 | 0.3% |
| Hindu | 5,025 | 2.73% | 6,749 | 3.32% | 7,438 | 3.30% |
| Jewish | 534 | 0.29% | 326 | 0.16% | 246 | 0.1% |
| Muslim | 26,963 | 14.62% | 49,991 | 24.60% | 74,191 | 32.94% |
| Sikh | 1,487 | 0.81% | 2,347 | 1.16% | 3,032 | 1.35% |
| Other religion | 642 | 0.35% | 898 | 0.44% | 1,115 | 0.5% |
| No religion | 25,960 | 14.08% | 33,594 | 16.53% | 39,580 | 17.57% |
| Religion not stated | 13,331 | 7.23% | 12,373 | 6.09% | 13,697 | 6.08% |
| Total | 184,371 | 100.00% | 203,201 | 100.00% | 225,262 | 100.0 |

### Distribution

* Christianity
* Islam
* Judaism
* Hinduism
* Sikhism
* Buddhism
* Other religion
* No religion