You asked
It is possible to find out the number of British-born Nigerians, living in the UK, from 1980 to 2011?
We said
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request asking for the number of British-born Nigerians, living in the UK, from 1980 to 2011.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) carries out the decennial census of England and Wales and we are therefore responding on that basis.
Unfortunately, there are no standard census tables that provide the specific information you require. Therefore, we would be unable to provide this information in response to your Freedom of Information request. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.
However, whilst the census does not ask a question about respondents' citizenship, the 2011 Census did ask questions about national identity and passports held. It may therefore be possible for you to commission a cross-tabulation as bespoke analysis. Such services would be subject to legal frameworks, disclosure controls, resources and agreement of costs. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact Census Customer Services to discuss your enquiry further. Please note, there will be a charge for this work which would be subject to our charging policy.
The 1991 Census was the first to ask an ethnic group question. It may be possible to obtain a count of those UK-born people who used the ethnic group write-in option to specify Nigerian. Again, Census Customer Services and our Commissioned Tables teams will be able to advise you as to best way to obtain the data.