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%. The share of ethnic minorities reached 40% of the total, a 39% increase. Affluent white families from diverse wards in London are shifting to less diverse wards in the outer suburbs. In the extreme example of Barking and Dagenham, the research shows, a third of the white British population departed between 2001 and 2011. Since many lack the resources to move or are council tenants, this suggests that a majority of local white British who could leave may have done so. The share of minorities in London has increased by a percentage point a year since 1991. Minorities are moving out of their areas of concentration to better neighborhoods, resulting in ever larger heavily-minority zones. The situation has been likened to that in the United States - where white Americans leave or avoid majority minority neighborhoods and seek out areas that are over 70% white.