Northern Ireland is the least ethnically diverse region of the UK, according to a Stormont briefing paper.
Just 3.4% of the population - 65,600 people - are classified as coming from a minority ethnic group.
That is out of a total population of 1,903,200 people.
The five largest minority ethnic groups are people of Mixed Ethnicity, Black, Indian, Chinese and Filipino.
Northern Ireland's 3.4% compares to England and Wales at 18.3% and Scotland 12.9%.
The briefing paper was prepared for Stormont MLAs by the Assembly's Research and Information Service (RAISE).
The paper also said hate crime is more prevalent in Northern Ireland than "generally realised" with the number of racist incidents "regularly exceeding" the number of sectarian ones.
In 2023 there were more than 1,300 incidents where the victim believed race was a motivating factor.
This compared to 1,091 sectarian incidents.
The paper points out that as racist incidents involve a much smaller percentage of the overall population "the likelihood of a member of the Black and Minority Ethnic community experiencing a racially-motivated incident is considerably higher than the likelihood of a member of the dominant communities experiencing an incident with a sectarian motivation".
The changing demographics are being reflected in Northern Ireland's schools.
Figures show that the number of "newcomer pupils" enrolling has more than doubled in the past 12 years to just over 20,000.
Those children now account for a 5.9% of all school enrolments.
In some schools the proportion of newcomer pupils is much higher than in others, including 70 schools where they make up 20% or more.
This includes schools in towns like Belfast, Ballymena, Dungannon, Portadown and Belfast.
Some of those regional towns offer employment opportunities in factories linked to food production.
RAISE said with an ageing population and a shortage of young people moving into the labour market, a regular flow of young international migrants would be essential to maintain public services and the wider economy.
