Demography
Bedford is home to one of the largest concentrations of Italian immigrants in the UK. According to a 2001 census, 2 in 7 (almost 30%) of Bedford's population are of at least partial Italian descent. This is mainly as a result of labour recruitment in the early 1950s by the London Brick Company in the southern Italian regions of Puglia, Campania, Calabria, Molise, Abruzzo and Sicily. Bedford's Little Italy feel is enhanced by a wide variety of Italian bars, restaurants and social clubs throughout the town. as well as a large number of delis and grocery shops selling Italian and continental produce – and by the large Italian mission church run by the Scalabrini Fathers order. From 1954 to 2008 Bedford had its own Italian vice-consulate.
In addition to Italian immigrants, Bedford has also been the recipient of significant immigration from South Asia (8.1% of Bedford's population; Indians began arriving from the late 1950s onwards from the Punjab area & many worked at The London Brick Company), Eastern Europe (particularly in the 2000s), Greece, Cyprus, the Middle East and Africa (3% of Bedford's population is of Sub-Saharan descent), making it one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse towns in the UK in proportion to its size. Bedford is home to over one hundred immigrant languages, including Italian, Punjabi, Polish, Persian, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, and both Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese.
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