British Sikh Federation

Statistics from Independent Sources

 

 

Government Office for National Statistics, Social Focus on Ethnic Minorities, August 1996, for people living in Britain:

 

Pakistani – main language spoken – Punjabi: 48%, Urdu: 24%, English: 22%

 

Indian – religion – Sikh: 51%, Hindu: 33%, Muslim: 6%, Christian: 5%

                        Hindi is spoken by 2% of Indians living in the UK

 

Census 1991 populations in Great Britain:            Indian:              840,000

                                                                        Pakistani:          477,000

                                                                        Bangladeshi:      163,000

                                                                        Chinese:            157,000

                                                                        Other Asian:     198,000

 

 

Government Dept for Education and Employment letter dated 5 Nov 1999:

GCSE examinations in 1998 -     Panjabi : 1,686               Hindi :   0          Gujarati : 1,147

A Level examinations in 1998 – Panjabi :    262               Hindi : 22          Gujarati :        0

 

 

Commission for Racial Discrimination

The latest 1999 data from the Commission for Racial equality states that Punjabi is the most commonly spoken language among British Asians, which includes 95% of all Sikhs and 74% of all Pakistanis.

 

 

BBC Radio Times article, 24-30 January 1998, religious figures in UK

Sikh                              600,000

Hindu                           500,000

Jew                              300,000

Other religions               300,000

 

The BSF states that Punjabi is the 2nd language in England, and is used by some 1.3 million people, by Indians and Pakistanis living in the UK.

 

 

Government Office for National Statistics, Social Focus on Ethnic Minorities, August 1996

Young Adults (19-24) studying for first or higher degrees in Great Britain , Spring 1995

 

 

 

Ethnic Group

%

Category

 

 

 

Black

12

 

 

Sikh / Indian

29

 

 

Pakistani /

14

Bangladeshi

 

 

 

Other ethnic Minorities

30

 

 

White

13

 

 

 

 

 

The Tribune newspaper, Panjab, India, 13 April 1999

 

Amritsar, 13 April 1999: The Delhi Chief Minister, Mrs Sheila Dixit, said here today that Punjabi would be given the second language status in Delhi in view of the tercentenary celebrations of the Sikh Panth.

 

 

 

Faith Schools in Britain

 

 

The information listed below will be useful in discussions on faith schools, and the need for Sikh schools in the UK funded by the State; it became available at the recent Liberal Democrats Ethnic Minority Conference in Cheadle, Manchester, on 3 Feb 2002.

 

1. Approximately 1.7 million pupils are educated in religious state schools in Britain.

 

2. There are 6,906 Christian schools, 31 Jewish schools, 2 Muslim schools, 2 Sikh schools

 

 

On a fair and equitable population proportion basis we could expect some 69 Sikh schools in Britain (1% of Christian schools), instead of the 2 we have at the moment.

 

 

 

Multilingual Capital, ISBN 1 903292 00 X, Year 2000

Edited by Philip Baker & John Eversley

 

A number of important London institutions were involved in this research, e.g. University of Westminster, SOAS University of London, Queen Mary and Westfield College University of London, Corporation of London, etc.

 

Page 65, Table 3

This research shows that there are some 300 languages spoken in London. It also shows that Panjabi is the second spoken language of London, after English, with the speakers being as follows: -

 

1. English                                                                                                              5,636,500

2. Panjabi                                                                                                                 155,700

3. Gujarati                        149,600

4. Urdu/Hindi                    136,500

5. Bengali+Sylheti             136,300

 

Page 44

Panjabi is ranked 13th among the world’s languages with some 85 million speakers. Map 22 shows there are two above average Panjabi-speaking areas: a western zone comprising Hounslow, Ealing and Hillingdon, and an eastern zone which includes Waltham Forest, Redbridge, Newham, and Lewisham. The greatest concentration is in Ealing with more than five times the average for London as a whole.  Table 5 shows that Panjabi occupies first place in nine boroughs – more than any other language – and is second or third in a further five boroughs.

 

 

Glasgow City Council, Scotland

 

Letter to the BSF dated 22 August 2003, ref LC21560/EPT/JW, states that the Education Services monitor the pupils first language, and the data are used to manage the allocation of additional resources across the city. A copy of the statistical return for the last school session is listed below:

 

Arabic                                                                                                                           497

Bengali                                                                                                                            38

Cantonese                                                                                                                      197

English                                                                                                                       71,285

French                                                                                                                           141

Gaelic                                                                                                                            135

German                                                                                                                                      50

Greek                                                                                                                              24

Gujerati                                                         10

Hindi                                                                                                                               48

Hakka                                                                                                                             38

Italian                                                                                                                              83

Norwegian                                                                                                                         1

Punjabi                                                                                                                         2,470

Spanish                                                                                                                            41

Turkish                                                                                                                          196

Urdu                                                                                                                           1,830

Other languages                                                                                                           1,317

Not Disclosed                                                                                                                 779

Not known                                                                                                                   3,789

Total                                                                                                                          82,969

 

 

27 September 2003