What is Britain really like? How do British people really live – when we are not growing giant pumpkins or walking naked from Lands End to John O’Groats.

　　This is of course a difficult and complicated question. We can find some answers in a book published by the government last week. It is called Social Trends, and it contains statistics on many different aspects of life in Britain.

　　It shows, for example, that the population of Britain is growing. There are now nearly ***people in the United Kingdom. But, compared with ***years ago, there are now ***million fewer people under the age of ***, and ***more people over the age of ***. Nearly ***% of people in Britain are now aged over ***. So we are living longer than we used to, but have fewer children.

　　About ***of the population of Britain is from an ethnic minority. The largest ethnic minority group is Indian, followed by Pakistanis, Black Caribbean, Black Africans, Bangladeshis and Chinese. In addition, about ***% of the population are white people of Irish descent.

　　Many people from ethnic minorities live in London, which is now one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world. In one major city, Leicester in the English Midlands, the majority of people are from ethnic minorities.

　　Over the last *** years the number of households in Britain has grown by over ***%. And ***% of households are now single people. Many of these are older people whose partner has died. But over ***% of men (and a smaller number of women) aged between ***and *** live alone. Altogether, about *** people in Britain live alone.

　　At one time it was socially unacceptable for a unmarried people to have babies. But today ***% of births are outside marriage. *** years ago the figure was only *** %.

　　You can find a lot more information on the Social Trends website. There is a link from the podcast website.