Prof Kaufmann likened the situation to that in the US – where white Americans leave or avoid ‘majority minority’ neighbourhoods and seek out areas that are over 70 per cent white.
Britain is ‘self-segregating’ as white families flee urban areas for the countryside and outer suburbs.
The trend is causing an ‘ethnic cliff’, in which the proportion of households from minority backgrounds is vastly different in areas just a few miles apart.
Some outer London boroughs – including Enfield, Waltham Forest and Redbridge – have seen their white British population drop by as much as a quarter over the past decade.
The same applies to urban areas around the capital such as Luton, Reading and Bedfordshire.
Meanwhile, the white British population in many suburban and rural districts just next door has soared, according to research produced by Birkbeck College, University of London, in conjunction with think tank Demos.
‘Between 2001 and 2011, the proportion of white British in London’s population fell from 58 to 45 per cent,’ said Birkbeck professor of politics Eric Kaufmann.
‘The share of ethnic minorities reached 40 per cent of the total, a 39 per cent increase.’
‘This has caught many by surprise… Analysts implied that London would not become “majority minority” in most of our lifetimes, but the latest census figures suggest otherwise.’
Affluent white families from diverse wards in London are shifting to less diverse wards in the outer suburbs.
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