Vietnamese people in the United Kingdom

A Vietnamese boat person in a refugee camp, before immigrating to the Western World

The 2001 UK Census recorded 23,347 people born in Vietnam with over 65% of these originated in Northern Vietnam. A study published in 2007 reported that community organisations estimated that there were at least 55,000 Vietnamese in England and Wales, and that 20,000 of these people were undocumented migrants and at least 5,000 were overseas students.[1] The Office for National Statistics estimates that in 2014, 28,000 people born in Vietnam were resident in the UK.[2]

As with most emerging ethnic groups in the UK, the largest concentrations of Vietnamese people can be found in the larger metropolitan areas and cities, such as London (33,000), with the majority (around 1/3 of all Vietnamese Londoners) being located in Lewisham, Southwark and Hackney.[1] Significant Vietnamese communities also exist in Birmingham (over 4,000), Leeds and Manchester (over 2,500).[3] According to the 2011 census, the cities with the most Vietnam-born residents are London (15,337), Birmingham (1,479), Manchester (865), Nottingham (405), Leeds (374), Northampton (322), Cambridge (259), Newcastle upon Tyne (245), Bristol (220) and Leicester (202).

Although the majority of the first Vietnamese immigrants to the UK spoke no English at all, second generation Vietnamese descendants as well as more recent immigrants have a better understanding of the English language.[1] It is unknown how many of the 55,000 Vietnamese people in the UK speak English as a primary or secondary language; according to Ethnologue, Vietnamese is the main language of 15,200 UK residents.[4]

By far the most common religions for Vietnamese people in the UK are Buddhism and Roman Catholicism, which are followed by roughly 80% and 20% (respectively) of the total community's total population.[5] This is roughly in line with the religious breakdown of Vietnam, where 85% of the population are Buddhists and 7% are Roman Catholic.

A PRIAE study in 2005 showed a high number of cases of osteoporosis and memory problems amongst elderly Vietnamese people in the UK. It is believed that the Vietnamese community in the UK finds it extremely difficult to gain access to the country's health services, the main reasons for this include unfamiliarity with the British health and social care sectors, Vietnamese cultural beliefs, and financial difficulties, as well as many immigrants being incapable of speaking English or being able to understand it in written form.[1]

A study by Refugee Action showed that during the years leading up to 1993, the majority of Vietnamese British people were concentrated in overcrowded local authority housing. More recent findings state the reasons for South East Asians in the UK requesting council housing as being because they were told to leave the family home, health/medical issues and relationship breakdowns.[1]

39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a lorry trailer on 23 October 2019. The victims consists of mostly teenagers, who travelled in a refrigerator unit, but the refrigeration was not turned on and temperatures rose to 38.5C during the journey. This has sparked huge controversy and uproar.[6][7]

Many Vietnamese people who are trafficked into the UK are victims of modern slavery and are often used to tend to illegal cannabis farms across the country. A fire at a large scale cannabis factory in Oldham in May 2022 led to the deaths of 4 Vietnamese migrants who were trapped inside the building.[8] Vietnamese drug kingpins are believed to operate thousands of illegal cannabis farms across the UK with roughly 12% of all cannabis convicts in the country being southeast Asian.[9]