Does Britain have ghettos?

The British 1991 Census included a question on ethnic identity for the first time. This allows us to measure the extent of ethnic segregation in British cities on a much more reliable basis than has hitherto been available. It also allows us to compare British levels of segregation with those experienced by African Americans in the United States. British levels of segregation are much lower than those found in the USA and, for the Black Caribbean population, they are falling. South Asian levels of segregation are higher than for the Caribbean population but show considerable internal variation. Bangladeshis, the most recently arrived of the groups, show the highest levels of encapsulation, followed by the Pakistanis, while Indian rates are relatively modest. Indirect standardization indicates that the contribution of economic factors to the observed levels of segregation is not substantial.