The population of London reached over **** million in 2024, an increase of almost *** million people when compared with the early 1980s. Throughout the 1980s, the population of the United Kingdom's capital grew at a relatively slow rate, before accelerating to a much faster rate in the 1990s. London is by far the largest city / urban agglomeration in the United Kingdom, more than three times larger than the next largest cities of Manchester and Birmingham. London’s forecasted population is expected to continue growing at much the same pace it has been growing since the mid-1990s and reach almost *** million by 2042. London boroughs As of 2024, the London borough with the highest population was Croydon, at approximately *******, followed by Barnet at *******. Overall, London is divided into 33 different boroughs, with London's historic center, the City of London, having by far the smallest population, at just ******. Residents of the City of London, however, have the highest average median weekly earnings among all of London's boroughs, at ***** pounds per week, compared with just *** pounds per week in Redbridge, the lowest average weekly earnings among London boroughs. While the overall unemployment rate for London was 5** percent in early 2025, this ranged from ****percent in Newham, to just *** percent in Richmond upon Thames.
Economic imbalance Aside from being the UK's largest city in terms of population, London is also undoubtedly the UK's cultural, political and economic center. As of 2023, the GDP of Greater London was approximately *** billion British pounds, almost a quarter of the UK's overall GDP. In the same year, GDP per person in London was ****** pounds compared with the UK average of ****** pounds. Additionally, productivity in London is far higher than the UK average. As measured by output per hour worked, London was **** percent more productive than the rest of the UK.

According to the 2021 Census, London was the most ethnically diverse region in England and Wales – 63.2% of residents identified with an ethnic minority group.

In 2024, Croydon had the largest population among London boroughs at just over 409,340, followed by Barnet at 405,050.

Comprehensive demographic dataset for New London, , NH, US including population statistics, household income, housing units, education levels, employment data, and transportation with year-over-year changes.

By 2047 the population of London is expected to reach 9.97 million people, an increase of almost 699,500 when compared with 2025. While there has been quite a steep rise in its population in recent years, London’s population growth was relatively stagnant throughout the 1980s and even decreased slightly towards the end of that decade. After peaking at 8.89 million in 2019, the population of London has fallen slightly, to 8.8 million by 2021. UK population forecast Like London, the population of the United Kingdom is forecast to continue to grow well into the middle of the century. By 2046, the population of the UK is estimated to be over 76.3 million people, an increase of over 20 million people when compared with the population figures for 1976. Additionally, the average age of the population is predicted to increase from 39.5 years in 2020 to 44.5 years by the mid-2040s, and continue to increase towards the end of the century. London looms large In the UK, London is by far the largest urban agglomeration in the country, dwarfing the UK's next largest cities of Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds. London also has a dominant economic position in the UK, with the city accounting for around a quarter of the total GDP in the country. The UK capital also has a far higher GDP per head than the rest of the county, at over ****** pounds in 2023, compared with the UK average of ****** pounds.

There were ******* people living in London who were aged between 25 and 29 in 2024, the most of any group. The four largest age cohorts were all clustered between the ages of 25 and 44.

Content

Extensive demographic data collected by the Greater London Authority. A more curated "profiles" dataset is also included, with additional borough-level entries.

Acknowledgements

Reproduced under the UK Open Government Licence v2.0

Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right [2015]

Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right [2015]

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash

London Business Demography Report

Aston University have carried out research into London’s business demographics to support the development of the London Enterprise Panel’s Jobs and Growth plan.

This research was funded by the London Enterprise Panel and European Social Fund and is now available to users of the London Datastore. A spread sheet containing the data used to make the charts within the report is also available.

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Estimates of London's population between 1801 and 2021 (persons present 1801 to 1971 and usual residents for 1981 to 2021) derived from historic Census data.

Figures for years before 1931 are estimates by the Greater London Council published in Research Memorandum 413, 'The Changing Population of the London Boroughs'. Figures for 1931, 1951, and 1961 were published in 'Census 1961 Greater London Tables'; Figures for 1971 to 2021 are taken from individual censuses.

A number of characteristics of individuals are protected under the 2010 Equality Act, in order to limit the discrimination and disadvantage of groups with one or several shared characteristics. This table brings together a range of sources to present estimates of London's population by gender, age, ethnicity, religion, disability status, country of birth and sexual identity. It also shows population breakdowns for subgroups in each of these categories by broad age group and ethnicity. The socio-economic position of individuals is not a protected characteristic, but is nonetheless an important factor affecting outcomes. The table therefore also includes social class. The latest update showcases London's population as in 2023.

The population of the United Kingdom in 2024 was estimated to be approximately 69.3 million, with over 9.6 million people living in South East England. London had the next highest population, at almost 9.1 million people, followed by the North West England at 7.7 million. With the UK's population generally concentrated in England, most English regions have larger populations than the constituent countries of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which had populations of 5.5 million, 3.2 million, and 1.9 million respectively. English counties and cities The United Kingdom is a patchwork of various regional units, within England the largest of these are the regions shown here, which show how London, along with the rest of South East England had around 18 million people living there in this year. The next significant regional units in England are the 47 metropolitan and ceremonial counties. After London, the metropolitan counties of the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, and West Yorkshire were the biggest of these counties, due to covering the large urban areas of Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds respectively. Regional divisions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland The smaller countries that comprise the United Kingdom each have different local subdivisions. Within Scotland these are called council areas, whereas in Wales the main regional units are called unitary authorities. Scotland's largest Council Area by population is that of Glasgow City at over 650,000, while in Wales, it was the Cardiff Unitary Authority at around 384,000. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, has eleven local government districts, the largest of which is Belfast with a population of approxiamtely 352,000.

Land area and population density figures for 2001 to 2050 for wards and boroughs. Ward data begins in 2011. Population figure included are GLA estimate (2016-based projections), 2011 Census and ONS Mid-year Estimates. GLA figures are based on GLA population projections. Select which year you require from the drop-down box in the spreadsheet. Inland area takes account of water line. Areas with large bodies of water will have a smaller inland area than total area since some of the area will be water. Land area figures are taken from Ordnance Survey boundaries using MapInfo.

Daytime population - The estimated number of people in a borough in the daytime during an average day, broken down by component sub-groups. The figures given are an average day during school term-time. No account has been made for seasonal variations, or for people who are usually in London (resident, at school or working), but are away visiting another place. Sources include the Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) (available under license), Annual Population Survey (APS), 2011 Census, Department for Education (DfE), International Passenger Survey (IPS), GB Tourism Survey (GBTS), Great Britain Day Visit Survey (GBDVS), GLA Population Projections, and GLA Economics estimates (GLAE). The figures published in these sources have been used exactly as they appear - no further adjustments have been made to account for possible sampling errors or questionnaire design flaws. Day trip visitors are defined as those on day trips away from home for three hours or more and not undertaking activities that would regularly constitute part of their work or would be a regular leisure activity. International visitors – people from a country other than the UK visiting the location; Domestic overnight tourists – people from other parts of the UK staying in the location for at least one night. All visitor data is modelled and unrounded. This edition was released on 7 October 2015 and replaces the previous estimates for 2013. GLA resident population, 2011 Census resident population, and 2011 Census workday populations (by sex) included for comparison. See a visualisation of this data using Tableau. For more workday population data by age use the Custom Age-Range Tool for Census 2011 Workday population , or download data for a range of geographical levels from NOMIS.

This Update from the GLA Intelligence Unit analyses the ONS 2014 mid-year population estimates and associated components of change focussing on London and comparing these to ONS and GLA population projections.

National and subnational mid-year population estimates for the UK and its constituent countries by administrative area, age and sex (including components of population change, median age and population density).

These modelled annual population estimates were created for use the GLA's population projections.

They are intended to provide a consistent series of annual population and components of change between census years with all change accounted for by the standard components of change (births, deaths, and migration).

The official mid-year population estimates published by ONS are available here.

The original detailed internal migration data published by ONS is available here.

An overview of the general approach used to create these estimates is described in this presentation delivered at the 2022 BSPS conference.

* 17 April 2023 code for producing the modelled 2021 detailed internal migration flows is now available on Github

Estimates of London's population between 1801 and 2001 (persons present 1801 to 1991 and residents for 2001 onwards) derived from historic Census data.

Sources: years to 1971 - Greater London Council Research Memorandum 413, The Changing Population of the London Boroughs; 1981 Census Small Area Statistics, Table 1; 1991 Census Small Area Statistics, Table 1. Figure for Year-1939 is a mid-year estimate for the year 1939. Figure for Year-2001 onwards is the number of residents because the number of persons present is not available from 2001. Note that totals for Greater London may not match due to rounding errors. Figures are estimates to the nearest thousand.

In November 2014, 3,674 Londoners took part in the first London Survey run by Talk London, to tell us what they thought of the city and their neighbourhood. The London Survey enables us to: • Assess Londoners’ priorities across the breadth of Mayoral responsibilities • Understand Londoners’ perceptions of their quality of life • Identify those areas that require improvement, or where we need to improve outcomes for particular groups of people. TECHNICAL DETAILS • Results are based on interviews with 3,674 London residents aged 18+. • Interviews were carried out online via the Talk London community between 3 Oct and 5 Nov. • Interviews were not randomly sampled, but self-selecting via a number of known databases. This achieved a non-representative sample of Londoners. • The data has been weighted by age, gender and ethnicity to reflect that of the London population. • A minimum number of responses were achieved for each key demographic group to maintain a robust sample. • Where results do not sum to 100% this may be due to multiple responses, computer rounding or the exclusion of don’t knows/not stated. • The qualitative analysis of the open-ended questions 36, 37 and 38 was undertaken by SPA Future Thinking. Top level themes and sub themes are reported as a percentage of the overall base number of respondents (3,421 to all three questions). The top three sub themes are presented where available. • This is the first London Survey conducted by Talk London for City Hall. INFOGRAPHICS

This statistic displays the number of Great London's population that are living in areas that exceeded the nitrogen dioxide (NO2) annual mean UK Air Quality Strategy objective of ** µg/m3 in 2016. As of 2016, there was a population of just over *********** children aged 0 to 18 years old in Greater London. Of this population, more than ******* thousand are estimated to being exposed to toxic air.Overall, an estimated ** percent of the population of Greater London lived in areas that exceeded the NO2 Annual mean.

In 2015 London's population surpassed its previous peak of 8.6 million people. This dataset contains an excel workbook showing borough population estimates and projections for the period 1939 - 2039 and a brief summary of population change in the capital.