The South West is one of the least ethnically diverse of the nine English regions. Only the North East has a greater proportion of White British residents than the 95.3% in the South West.

The South West region had a total population of 4.9 million, according to the 2001 census. It covers an area of 23,829 square kilometres, making it the largest of England's nine regions. It is also the most sparsely populated, with an average of just 207 people living on each square kilometre of land.

• Profile of the South West region, including data on population, health, housing and employment (Office for National Statistics website)

Because the South West is a largely rural area, its ethnic minority population does not generally consist of geographically clustered communities, as is typical in many urban areas and some other rural regions. Instead, they are characterised by a wide diversity of rural dwellers living as individuals and families, not usually as communities. This has meant that many people from ethnic minorities living in the South West, especially rural Devon and Cornwall, are not present in numbers large enough to support the local provision of culturally specific goods and services, such as halal or kosher food, for example.

Population by ethnic group

South West

Population: 4,928,434

Ethnic group/sub-group		Population	Proportion compared to national average
White		4,815,316	97.7% 90.9%
	British	4,701,602	95.3% 86.9%
	Irish	32,484	0.65% 1.27%
	Other	81,230	1.64% 2.66%
Mixed		37,371	0.75% 1.30%
	White and Black Caribbean	13,343	0.27% 0.47%
	White and Black African	3,917	0.07% 0.15%
	White and Asian	11,198	0.22% 0.37%
	Other mixed	8,913	0.18% 0.30%
Asian		32,800	0.66% 4.57%
	Indian	16,394	0.33% 2.09%
	Pakistani	6,729	0.13% 1.43%
	Bangladeshi	4,816	0.09% 0.56%
	Other Asian	4,861	0.09% 0.48%
Black		20,920	0.42% 2.30%
	Caribbean	12,405	0.25% 1.14%
	African	6,171	0.12% 0.96%
	Other Black	2,344	0.04% 0.19%
Chinese		12,722	0.25% 0.44%
Other ethnic group		9,305	0.18% 0.43%

Source: Census 2001, Office for National Statistics

People from the White Other ethnic group form the largest ethnic minority in the region. More than 81,000 people, or 1.6% of the population, indicated this as their ethnic origin in the 2001 census. Just three other regions in England - London, the South East, and the East of England - have higher proportions of this group.

The next most populous group is made up of people in the Mixed category. The South West is the only English region where this group is proportionally better represented than black and Asian people, although in numerical terms the Mixed population here is smaller than that of any other region apart from the North East. One reason for this is the large Mixed populations in Bristol and Gloucester - more than 2% of both cities' residents - which skews the overall proportion somewhat.

No other region in England has a smaller proportion of Asian people (just 0.7%) within its total population than the South West. This is little more than half the proportion of the next lowest (the North East, at 1.3%).

Only the North East has proportionally fewer black residents. In the South West, the Black group makes up just 0.4% of the population. The difference compared to the national average is less marked for black people than Asians, however, because every region in England - apart from London and the West Midlands - has a black population that makes up less than 1% of all residents.

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