Canadians in the United Kingdom

Canadians in the United Kingdom

Total population
(Canadian-born residents 72,518 (2001 Census) 82,000 (2009 ONS estimate))
Regions with significant populations
London · Scotland · North West England
Languages
Canadian English · French
Religion
Catholicism · Anglicanism · Methodism Judaism · Islam · Agnosticism · Atheism

Canadians in the United Kingdom, or Canadian Britons, include people from Canada living in the United Kingdom and their descendents. In 2001, some 72,518 people born in Canada were living in the UK according to the UK census. Of the ten census tracts with the highest Canadian-born populations, nine were in London, with the other being Cambridge West. The Office for National Statistics estimates that, in 2009, 82,000 Canadian-born people were living in the UK. In 2012 this was the third largest community in the Canadian diaspora after Canadians in the United States, and Canadians in Hong Kong.

History

Britain, and especially London, for a long time served as the metropole to English Canadians— as it did to other British-descended and English-speaking people across the Commonwealth —the centre of their cultural and economic world where the ambitious would go to advance their careers on the biggest stage. This was still true, to some extent, in 1956 when Trinidadian Canadian theatre critic Ronald Bryden arrived in London for the first time looking to find "pure Anglitude" or the true spirit of Englishness, and remarked that the most imperial-looking buildings were the Commonwealth high commissions and those owned by the Canadian banks, the most Anlgocentric newspaper was owned by a Canadian, and the best theatre productions starred Canadian actors (in American productions).