British people

British people
Total population
Regions with significant populations
United Kingdom57,678,000[A][2]
United States
Australia
Canada
New Zealand
South Africa
Chile700,000[B][14]
France400,000[D][15]
Spain297,229[D][16][17]
Ireland291,000[D][8]
Argentina250,000[B][18]
United Arab Emirates240,000[C][19]
Germany115,000[C][20]
Languages
English
Religion

  1. ^ British citizens of any race or ethnicity.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g People who identify of full or partial British ancestry born into that country.
  3. ^ a b c UK-born people who identify of British ancestry only.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g British citizens or nationals.

British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits,[21] are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.[22][23][24] British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Ancient Britons, the Celtic-speaking inhabitants of Great Britain during the Iron Age, whose descendants forming the major part of the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, Bretons[23] and considerable proportions of English people.[25][26] It also refers to citizens of the former British Empire, who settled in the country prior to 1973, and hold neither UK citizenship nor nationality.[27]

Though early assertions of being British date from the Late Middle Ages, the Union of the Crowns in 1603 and the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 triggered a sense of British national identity.[28] The notion of Britishness and a shared British identity was forged during the 18th century and early 19th century when Britain engaged in several global conflicts with France, and developed further during the Victorian era.[28][29] The complex history of the formation of the United Kingdom created a "particular sense of nationhood and belonging" in Great Britain;[28] Britishness became "superimposed on much older identities", of English, Scots and Welsh cultures, whose distinctiveness still resists notions of a homogenised British identity.[30] Because of longstanding ethno-sectarian divisions, British identity in Northern Ireland is controversial, but it is held with strong conviction by Unionists.[31]

Modern Britons are descended mainly from the varied ethnic groups that settled in Great Britain in and before the 11th century: Prehistoric, Brittonic, Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Normans.[32] The progressive political unification of the British Isles facilitated migration, cultural and linguistic exchange, and intermarriage between the peoples of England, Scotland and Wales during the late Middle Ages, early modern period and beyond.[33][34] Since 1922 and earlier, there has been immigration to the United Kingdom by people from what is now the Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth, mainland Europe and elsewhere; they and their descendants are mostly British citizens, with some assuming a British, dual or hyphenated identity.[35] This includes the groups Black British and Asian British people, which together constitute around 10% of the British population.[36]

The British are a diverse, multinational,[37][38] multicultural and multilingual people, with "strong regional accents, expressions and identities".[39][40] The social structure of the United Kingdom has changed radically since the 19th century, with a decline in religious observance, enlargement of the middle class, and increased ethnic diversity, particularly since the 1950s, when citizens of the British Empire were encouraged to immigrate to Britain to work as part of the recovery from World War II. The population of the UK stands at around 67 million,[41] with a British diaspora of around 200 million concentrated in the United States, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, with smaller concentrations in the Republic of Ireland, Chile, South Africa, and parts of the Caribbean.[1]

  1. ^ a b Richards, Eric (14 May 2004). Britannia's Children: Emigration from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland Since 1600. London: A&C Black (published 2004). pp. 3–4. ISBN 9781852854416. Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2020. [...] even the basic outline of the diaspora remains vague. It was never a controlled movement and it was mostly poorly documented. Migrants are always difficult to categorise and to count. [...] The scale of the modern British dispersion has been estimated at about 200 million, [...] or, counting those who can claim descent from British and Irish emigrants, more than three times the current population of the British Isles.
  2. ^ Population By Country of Birth and Nationality tables January 2013 to December 2013 Archived 7 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 04_11_2014
  3. ^ 2020 United States census results for Americans identifying with full or partial 'English', 'Scottish', 'Welsh', 'Manx', 'Channel Islander', 'Scotch Irish', 'Irish' and 'American' ancestry. Demographers have noted that a large portion of Americans of British descent have a tendency to simply identify as 'American' since 1980."Ancestry of the Population by State: 1980" (PDF).Dominic Pulera (2004). Sharing the Dream: White Males in Multicultural America. A&C Black. pp. 57–60. ISBN 978-0-8264-1643-8. A majority of Americans identifying as 'Irish' are of Ulster Scots descent.Carroll, Michael P. (Winter 2006). "How the Irish Became Protestant in America". Religion and American Culture. 16 (1). University of California Press: 25–54. doi:10.1525/rac.2006.16.1.25. JSTOR 10.1525/rac.2006.16.1.25. S2CID 145240474.
  4. ^ "Detailed Races and Ethnicities in the United States and Puerto Rico: 2020 Census". United States census. 21 September 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Brits Abroad: Country-by-country", BBC News, 11 December 2006, archived from the original on 8 April 2013, retrieved 24 May 2009
  6. ^ 2021 Australian census results for estimated number of Australians of Anglo-Celtic descent. Includes Australians who identified their ancestry as part of the 'North-Western European' ancestry group or as 'Australian'. At least 88% of Australians within the North-Western European ancestry group identified with at least one Anglo-Celtic ancestry."Census of Population and Housing: Cultural diversity data summary, 2021" (XLSX). Abs.gov.au. Retrieved 28 July 2022. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has stated that most people nominating 'Australian' ancestry have at least partial Anglo-Celtic European ancestry."Feature Article – Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Australia (Feature Article)". 1301.0 – Year Book Australia, 1995. Commonwealth of Australia. Australian Bureau of Statistics.
  7. ^ "Census of Population and Housing: Cultural diversity data summary, 2021" (XLSX). Abs.gov.au. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference BritsAbroad was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ 2021 Canadian census results for Canadians identifying with full or partial British Isles, English-speaking 'Canadian', 'American', 'Australian', 'New Zealander', 'Albertan', 'British Columbian', 'Cape Bretoner', 'Manitoban', 'New Brunswicker', 'Nova Scotian', 'Prince Edward Islander', 'Saskatchewanian' and 'United Empire Loyalist' ancestry. According to Statistics Canada, many of those identifying with North American ancestries such as 'Canadian' are of British descent. "Immigration and Ethnocultural Diversity Highlight Tables". statcan.gc.ca. 25 October 2017.
  10. ^ Canada Census
  11. ^ New Zealanders of European descent, the vast majority of whom are estimated to have some British ancestry."Country Profile: New Zealand". 14 May 2008. Archived from the original on 14 May 2008. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  12. ^ "2018 Census totals by topic – national highlights". Stats NZ. 23 September 2019. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  13. ^ Census 2011: Census in brief (PDF). Pretoria: Statistics South Africa. 2012. p. 26. ISBN 9780621413885. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 May 2015. The number of people who described themselves as white in terms of population group and specified their first language as English in South Africa's 2011 Census was 1,603,575. The total white population with a first language specified was 4,461,409 and the total population was 51,770,560.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference british was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Erwin Dopf. "Présentation du Royaume-Uni". diplomatie.gouv.fr. Archived from the original on 29 May 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
  16. ^ "TablaPx". www.ine.es. Archived from the original on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  17. ^ Govan, Fiona (22 April 2014). "End to Mediterranean dream for 90,000 Britons who left Spain last year". Telegraph.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 January 2022.
  18. ^ Chavez, Lydia (23 June 1985), "Fare of the country: A bit of Britain in Argentina", The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 December 2020, retrieved 21 May 2009
  19. ^ "The other special relationship: the UAE and the UK". The National. Abu Dhabi. 21 November 2010. Archived from the original on 28 June 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  20. ^ The most popular British emigration destinations, local.live.com, 13 April 2007, archived from the original on 14 July 2006, retrieved 24 May 2009
  21. ^ "Brit". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 6 January 2022.
  22. ^ Cfr. Interpretation Act 1978, Sched. 1. By the British Nationality Act 1981, s. 50 (1), the United Kingdom includes the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man for the purposes of nationality law.
  23. ^ a b Macdonald 1969, p. 62:

    British, brit'ish, adj. of Britain or the Commonwealth.
    Briton, brit'ὁn, n. one of the early inhabitants of Britain: a native of Great Britain.

  24. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2004), British (Fourth ed.), dictionary.reference.com, archived from the original on 4 March 2016, retrieved 19 February 2009: "Brit·ish (brĭt'ĭsh) adj.
    • Of or relating to Great Britain or its people, language, or culture.
    • Of or relating to the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth of Nations.
    • Of or relating to the ancient Britons.
    n. (used with a pl. verb)
    • The people of Great Britain."
  25. ^ Schiffels, Stephan (17 October 2022). "The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool". Nature. 610 (7930): 112–119. Bibcode:2022Natur.610..112G. doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05247-2. PMC 9534755. PMID 36131019.
  26. ^ "Genetic study reveals 30% of white British DNA has German ancestry | Genetics | The Guardian". amp.theguardian.com. Archived from the original on 12 August 2023. Retrieved 25 August 2023.
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference windrushreport2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ a b c Colley 1992, p. 1.
  29. ^ Colley 1992, p. 5.
  30. ^ Colley 1992, p. 6.
  31. ^ CAIN Web Service, British? Irish? Or what?, cain.ulst.ac.uk, archived from the original on 8 June 2011, retrieved 19 February 2009
  32. ^ United States Department of State (July 2008), United Kingdom - People, state.gov, archived from the original on 28 October 2020, retrieved 19 February 2009
  33. ^ Trudgill 1984, p. 519.
  34. ^ Richardson & Ashford 1993, p. 531.
  35. ^ Ward 2004, pp. 113–115.
  36. ^ "2011 Census: Ethnic group, local authorities in the United Kingdom". Office for National Statistics. 11 October 2013. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  37. ^ Gordon Brown: We must defend the Union Archived 17 October 2020 at the Wayback Machine The Daily Telegraph, 25 March 2008
  38. ^ DIVERSITY AND CITIZENSHIP CURRICULUM REVIEW www.devon.gov.uk. Retrieved 13 August 2010. Archived 15 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  39. ^ UK dialects 'strong and varied', BBC, 15 August 2005, archived from the original on 8 June 2009, retrieved 19 February 2009
  40. ^ Rosen 2003, p. 3.
  41. ^ "Estimates of the population for the UK, England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: mid-2021". www.ons.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 15 October 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2023.