People of Indian origin, who constitute the largest group in Britain among the ethnic minorities, have the highest number of people employed among all social groups, a latest official publication said.

"The proportion of working-age people living in workless households in the UK was highest for the Chinese ethnic group, at 25 per cent, and lowest for the Indian ethnic group, at 10 per cent, while 11 per cent of people in the White ethnic group lived in a workless household," the 2008 edition of Social Trends, a publication released by the Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday.

Social Trends provides an up-to-date and comprehensive description of society in 2007, drawing on statistics from a wide range of government departments and other organisations to show how society is changing, as well as some of the factors which may be driving these trends.

According to it, Asians are the largest ethnic group in Britain, constituting five per cent of the total population, while blacks make up three per cent of the population.

The study puts the number of Indians in Britain at 12.15 lakh and also shows that the UK has become more ethnically diverse in the past few years as its population has grown from 56 million in 1986 to 60 million in 2006.

But 90 per cent of the population is still white, compared to 93 per cent in 2001.

The publication reveals that UK residents made a record 45.3 million holiday trips abroad in 2006. Nearly 3 per cent of these trips were to Asia, where common destinations were India and Thailand.

It also points that the UK population was aging and the number of people aged 65 and above in the UK is expected to exceed the number aged below 16 by 2021. The proportion of people living alone is also on rise.