Before the 1960s the Chinese community in the UK was relatively small. Between 1951 and 1961 the Chinese population rose from around 12,000 to close to 40,000. During this time people mainly relocated from Chinese Malaya and Hong Kong in response to the increasingly difficult conditions in the region.
There were very few Chinese-owned businesses, restaurants or grocery stores before the 1960s (there were only 36 Chinese restaurants in the whole of the United Kingdom in the 1950s).
Click here to read this article in the Londonist. It explains how London’s Chinese food industry grew during this time.
Before 1991 the UK census did not record ethnicity. However, there is an estimate that the UK Chinese population in 1981 of approximately 154,000 (SACU).
It is difficult to measure the growth in people of Chinese heritage in the UK or more specifically in Brent. More work needs to be done to find useful facts and figures.
Census data from 2011 is inadequate as it doesn’t ask about ethnicity but for the main languages spoken in each household. Around 1200 Brent households responded to say that the main languages spoken at home were Mandarin, Cantonese, or other languages of Chinese origin but this figure does not provide a very accurate picture of the Chinese community. By 2011 many households were second or third generation immigrants by this time and although their Chinese heritage may remain strong English would be the main language spoken at home.
More recently, over 150,000 people from Hong Kong have moved to the UK since the British National (Overseas) or BN(O) visa route opened in 2021, according to Home Office figures in August 2024.
Chinese Heritage Origins
People with Chinese heritage in Brent have origins in many different countries in East Asia and beyond, and have relocated here for different social, economic or political reasons since the 1950s. It is a diverse group connected through Chinese heritage, food and customs. The chart (right) shows just some of the countries of origin - beyond China - we came across in the course of this 2025 project.
