听播客学英语 279 今天的英国

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　　What is Britain really like? How do British people really live – when we are not growing giant pumpkins¹ 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 statistics² 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 aged³ over ***. So we are living longer than we used to, but have fewer children.

　　About ***of the population of Britain is from an ethnic⁴ 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 descent⁵.

　　Many people from ethnic minorities live in London, which is now one of the most ethnically⁶ 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.

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