| Total population | |
|---|---|
 England and Wales only:267,288 – 0.45% (2021)[1]
| |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| London,Belfast,Liverpool,Manchester,Oxford,Cambridge,Glasgow,Edinburgh | |
| Languages | |
| Tagalog/Filipino – 60,899 Thai – 22,966 Vietnamese – 18,518 Malay – 8,014 Number of speakers in England and Wales as a main language, of all usual residents aged 3 and over, from the 2021 census.[2] | |
| Religion | |
| Buddhism,Christianity,Islam,Non-religious, others | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Asians |
| Part of a series on |
| British people |
|---|
| United Kingdom |
| Eastern European |
| Northern European |
| Southern European |
| Western European |
| Central Asian |
| East Asian |
| South Asian |
| Southeast Asian |
| West Asian |
| African |
| Caribbean |
| Northern American |
| South American |
| Oceanian |
Southeast Asians have lived in the United Kingdom for several centuries, arriving from Southeast Asia and primarily originating from countries and territories such as thePhilippines,Malaysia,Indonesia,Burma,Singapore,Thailand andVietnam.
Southeast Asian is not acategory used in official statistics in the United Kingdom,[3] but has been considered as a particular ethnic identity,[4][5][6] including by theForeign and Commonwealth Office,[7] and Southeast Asians have been studied academically as a distinct group.[8][9]
The country had a small population of Filipinos, Singaporeans and Malaysians until the late 20th century. The number started to grow in the 1970s after the passage of theCommonwealth Immigrants Act and itsamendment in 1968 which curtailed extensive rights to immigrate to the UK for Commonwealth citizens. This Act had the effect of more immigration from non-Commonwealth countries, such as thePhilippines.[citation needed]
The2001 UK census recorded 9,924 Burmese-born people residing in the United Kingdom.[10]
The figures below represent data collected for the2021 United Kingdom census with the country as a reported birthplace recorded (i.e. does not include British born people of Southeast Asian origin). The census in Scotland was delayed for a year and took place in 2022.[11]
| State/Territory | England (2021)[12] |  Scotland(2022)[13] | Wales (2021)[12] | Northern Ireland (2021)[14] |  United Kingdom(2021/22) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Philippines | 149,474 | 6,245 | 5,542 | 3,701 | 164,962 |
 Malaysia | 59,674 | 5,295 | 1,836 | 871 | 67,676 |
 Singapore | 39,637 | 3,725 | 1,287 | 360 | 45,009 |
 Thailand | 47,597 | 6,948 | 2,112 | 725 | – |
 Vietnam | 36,442 | 772 | 237 | ||
 Indonesia | 11,858 | 320 | 239 | ||
 Myanmar | 10,410 | 214 | 48 | ||
 Brunei | 4,350 | 163 | 24 | ||
 Cambodia | 1,500 | 33 | 27 | ||
| Other Southeast Asia | 15,582 | 108 | – | ||
| Total | 376,524 | 22,214 | 12,348 | 6,232 | 417,318 |
| Ethnic group[a] | England (2021)[15] | Scotland (2022)[16] | Wales (2021)[15] | Northern Ireland (2021)[17] | United Kingdom (2021/22)[b] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Filipinos | 155,996 | To be published, only 2011 figures available[18] | 6,142 | 4,449 | 166,587 |
| Thai | 38,279 | 1,683 | 373 | 40,335 | |
| Vietnamese | 36,643 | 815 | 117 | 37,575 | |
| Malay | 12,407 | 466 | 143 | 13,016 | |
| Burmese/Myanma | 7,338 | 177 | 18 | 7,533 | |
| Indonesian | 7,145 | 199 | 124 | 7,468 | |
| Total | 257,808 | TBC | 9,482 | 5,224 | 272,514 |
In 2008,ABS-CBN reported that acting parts in theBritish film industry were rare for Southeast Asian British people.[19]
Prevailing racist codes – be they denigratingAfrican Americans in the United States, or Southeast Asians in Britain.
Indeed people of different ethnic backgrounds may share the same religion (e.g. southeast Asians in Britain, Moroccans andTurks in the Netherlands or in Germany).
While some ethnic minority groups may be related to recent or old migration waves (e.g.,Mexicans in the USA or South East Asians in the UK), others refer to populations that gained minority status over time (e.g., theAboriginal in Canada).
The evidence for associations between residential segregation ... amongAsian Americans is sparse, although studies of Southeast Asians in the UK are more common.
A comparison ofwhite British and South-east Asian British adolescent females diagnosed with anorexia
Acting jobs for southeast Asians in the United Kingdom (UK) are few and far between, so Filipino actors and actresses take what is offered when they come up.[dead link]
| By origin in Asia  |
| ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By residence |
| ||||||||||||||||||