Ethnic residential segregation stability in England, 1991-2001

The residential arrangements of ethnic groups became the subject of political interest when they were identified as a feature of urban areas that experienced unrest in 2001. Residential segregation was framed as both problematic for community relations and a cause of economic inequalities. This article presents evidence that ethnic residential segregation in England was not increasing between 1991 and 2001 and that there was a trend for local authority areas to become more similar at a relatively low level of segregation. At neighbourhood level there is little evidence to regard ethnic residential segregation as a problem despite the policy priority it came to have