that brought to the city a large influx of over 400,000 people, mainly from rural and underdeveloped Southern Italy. In the last three decades, the foreign born share of the population soared. Immigrants came mainly from Africa (in particular Eritreans, Egyptians, Moroccans, Senegalese, and Nigerian), and the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe (notably Albanians, Romanians, Ukrainians, Macedonians, Moldovans, and Russians), in addition to a growing number of Asians (in particular Chinese, Sri Lankans and Filipinos) and Latin Americans (Mainly South Americans). At the beginning of the 1990s, Milan already had a population of foreign-born residents of approximately 58,000 (or 4% of the then population), that rose rapidly to over 117,000 by the end of the decade (about 9% of the total). Decades of continuing high immigration have made the city the most cosmopolitan and multicultural in Italy. Milan notably hosts the oldest and largest Chinese community in Italy, with almost 34,000 people in 2021. Situated in the 9th district, and centred on Via Paolo Sarpi, an important commercial avenue, the Milanese Chinatown was originally established in the 1920s by immigrants from Wencheng County, in the Zhejiang province, and used to operate small textile and leather workshops. Milan has also a substantial English-speaking community (more than 4,000 American, British, Irish and Australian expatriates), and several English schools and language publications, such as Hello Milano, Where Milano and Easy Milano. Religion Milan's population, like that of Italy as a whole, is mostly Catholic. It is the seat of the Archdiocese of Milan. Greater Milan is also home to Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist communities. Milan has been a Christian-majority city since the late Roman Empire. Its religious history was marked by the figure of St. Ambrose, whose heritage includes the Ambrosian Rite (Italian: Rito ambrosiano), used by some five million Catholics in the greater part of the Archdiocese of Milan, which consider the largest in Europe. The Rite varies slightly from the canonical Roman Rite liturgy, with differences in the mass, liturgical year (Lent starts four days later than in the Roman Rite), baptism, rite of funerals, priest clothes, and sacred music (use of the Ambrosian chant rather than Gregorian). In addition, the city is home to the largest Orthodox community in Italy. Lombardy is the seat of at least 78 Orthodox parishes and monasteries, the vast majority of them located in the area of Milan. The