Luton is a borough in Bedfordshire, England, 30 miles northwest of London. Its original name was "Lygea-Byrig" ("town by a river in an open field"), and it was founded in the 6th century as an Anglo-Saxon outpost on the River Lea; its current name comes from the Lea. It became a center of hatmaking, and, in 1905, the arrival of the Vauxhall Motors plant turned the town into a center of the automobile manufacturing industry. Its airport opened in 1938, with London Luton Airport becoming one of the United Kingdom's major airports; it also became home to the University of Bedfordshire. The town historically had a large Irish community, and it later came to have a large Pakistani immigrant community during the 1970s. In 2018, Luton had 214,109 residents, with 54.6% being white, 29.9% Asian, 9.8% black, 4.2% mixed race, and 1.5% other.
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