They originate primarily from eight sovereign states in South Asia which are, in alphabetical order, the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
There is also a history of migration of diasporic South Asians from Africa and Southeast Asia moving to, and settling in, the United Kingdom.
[13] Since the 17th century, the East India Company employed thousands of South Asian lascars, scholars and workers (who were mostly Bengali or Muslim) mainly to work on British ships and ports around the world.
[16] Some lascars took British wives, and some converted to Anglican Christianity (at least nominally) in order to marry,[17] possibly due to a lack of South Asian women in Britain at the time.
One of the most famous early Muslim immigrants to England was Sake Dean Mahomed, a captain of the British East India Company who in 1810 founded London's first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostane Coffee House.
In 1856 the Strangers' Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders was opened in Commercial Road, Limehouse under the manager Lieutenant-Colonel R. Marsh Hughes.
[30] The Navigation Act 1660 restricted the employment of non-English sailors to a quarter of the crew on returning East India Company ships.
Although, the comparatively few lascars that gained work often opened shops and helped initiate social and political community associations.
[36] There was further significant migration after World War II, particularly from the Punjab in India, Mirpur in Pakistan and the Sylhet region of Bangladesh.
[39] In 2021, South Asian campaigners petitioned the Department for Education to include the Partition of India in the UK's national curriculum.
[40] The figures below represent data collected for the 2021 United Kingdom census with the country as a reported birthplace recorded (i.e. does not include British born people of South Asian origin).
[50] In 2018, research from the University of Surrey showed that South Asian people in Britain had low-levels of Vitamin D intake in a national context.
For example, a study showed that British-Pakistani women faced cultural and language barriers and were not aware that breast screening takes place in a female-only environment.
[55] The following year, a study published in The Lancet suggested that South Asians were at the greatest risk of infection, hospitalisation or death from the second wave of the pandemic when compared with other ethnic groups in Britain.