"British Arabs" is used as an official ethnic designation by the National Association of British Arabs. It is also employed by academics, and in the media. Unlike Black British or Asian British, the term "British Arab" was not one of those employed in government ethnicity categorisations used in the 2001 UK Census and for national statistics. As a result, community members are believed to have been under-counted in previous population estimates according to the National Association of British Arabs. This absence of a separate "Arab" category in the UK census obliged many to select other ethnicity categories. In the late 2000s, the British government announced that an "Arab" ethnicity category would be added to the 2011 UK Censusfor the first time. The decision came following lobbying by the National Association of British Arabs and other Arab organizations, who argued for the inclusion of a separate "Arab" entry to accommodate under-reported groups from the Arab world. Including both write-in and tick-box responses, 230,556 Arabs were recorded in the 2011 Census in England, 9,989 in Wales, and 9,366 in Scotland. In NABA's own report on the 2011 Census, it adds up answers from the write-in responses that it classifies as Arab, namely "Arab", "African Arab", "White and Arab", "Moroccan", "North African", "Other Middle East", "Somali", "Somalilander" or "White and North African", arguing that this gives a total of 366,769 Arabs in England and Wales but noting that there may be double-counting of individuals in this total, since it is uncertain how many of these individual write-in responses are also included in the general "Arab" category. Most British Arabs live in the Greater London area, and many are either businesspeople, recent immigrants or students. There are also sizable and long-established Yemeni Arab communities living in both Cardiff and the South Shields area near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. A diverse community, British Arabs are represented in the business and media fields, among other areas. Miladi's 2006 survey of 146 community members during the summer of 2001 reported Al-Jazeera as being the respondents' preferred news outlet. Reasons supplied for the selection included the quality of the station's programs and transmission, its discussion of current issues in the Arab world, and the possibility of giving voice to the community's concerns and positions on various matters. Additionally, 2010 was a breakthrough year in terms of political participation. Several British Arabs ran for and/or were appointed to office as community representatives.
Religion
According to the 2011 Census, the religious breakdown of Arabs in England and Wales, and Scotland can be seen in the table below.
Notable British Arabs
Jim Al-Khalili, Professor of Theoretical Physics, author, broadcaster and presenter of science programmes on BBC radio and television., OBEFRSFInstP British-Iraqi theoretical physicist.
